The total mental effort required to process information at any given moment. Based on John Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory, which proposes that working memory has a fixed capacity — and that learning fails when that capacity is exceeded.
Why it matters#
Working memory can hold roughly four items at once. When a course demands more than that — through complexity, poor organisation, unnecessary media, or confusing navigation — the learner’s cognitive resources are spent managing the experience rather than acquiring the skill. Understanding cognitive load tells you where that demand comes from and which kinds you can actually reduce.