Research & Training Blog

by Alyssa Lawson, Ph.D.

The following is a synopsis of a recently published paper by Martella, Lawson, and Robinson that explores the scientific evidence in favor of cognitive load theory. See the full citation in the Reference below. 

    Cognitive Load Theory (CLT; Sweller, 1988, 2011) is a theory that comes from cognitive and educational psychology and explains that there are various types of mental (or ‘cognitive’) loads that can impact a learner during learning. This includes extraneous load, an undesirable type of load associated with processing unrelated to the goal of the lesson; intrinsic load, a necessary type of load associated with processing the content of the lesson; and germane load, a desirable type of load associated with developing a deeper understanding of the material. CLT is a dominating theory in the education world and has been investigated in many different capacities. The purpose of the article, “How scientific is cognitive load theory research compared to the rest of educational psychology?”, was to investigate the quality of the published empirical research on CLT.

    The investigation conducted within this article was based on previous research conducted by Brady and colleagues (2023). In Brady et al.’s article, the authors argued that the research being published in educational psychology is becoming less rigorous and making more recommendations for practice. This means that more research is using less rigorous designs and using these findings to make recommendations for educators. The problem with this is that educators need to make important decisions that could impact many learners. If the research that is being used to back these decisions is not sound, there could be disastrous impacts on students’ learning.

    The goal of the current paper was to investigate if this trend persisted within the research being conducted on CLT. By investigating articles published in six different educational psychology and education journals, across 2020 and 2023, we determined that the majority of the studies investigating CLT use rigorous designs. Additionally, when studies do not use rigorous designs, we do not see recommendations for practice being made. From this, we conclude that it seems as though the research investigating CLT deviates from the trends seen in the broader field of educational psychology.

Martella, A.M., Lawson, A.P., and Robinson, D.H. (2004). How scientific is cognitive load theory research compared to the rest of educational psychology? Education Sciences, 14(8), 920. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080920.

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12, 257-285. 
Sweller, J. (2011). Cognitive load theory. In J. P. Mestre & B. H. Ross (Eds.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Cognition in Education (pp. 37-76). Elsevier Academic Press.