The concept of 'cognitive load' refers to the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory. In educational psychology, cognitive load theory suggests that instructional design should minimize extraneous cognitive load to facilitate learning. Extraneous load is generated by the way information is presented to learners, rather than by the inherent complexity of the material itself. For instance, a poorly designed diagram that requires learners to search for corresponding labels can increase extraneous load, thereby hindering schema acquisition. In contrast, intrinsic load is tied to the difficulty of the subject matter and cannot be altered by instructional methods. Effective teaching materials aim to manage intrinsic load while reducing extraneous load, allowing learners to devote more cognitive resources to the process of understanding and integrating new knowledge.