雅思阅读

📖 Reading Passage

The concept of 'cognitive load' refers to the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory. In educational psychology, it is often divided into three types: intrinsic, extraneous, and germane. Intrinsic load is inherent to the complexity of the material itself, while extraneous load is generated by the way information is presented to the learner. Germane load, on the other hand, is the effort devoted to constructing and automating schemas. Research suggests that instructional design should aim to reduce extraneous load, but not necessarily intrinsic load, as the latter is tied to the difficulty of the subject matter. However, overly complex presentations can overwhelm learners, hindering schema acquisition. Thus, effective teaching materials should be structured to manage all three types of load, optimizing the learner's capacity for understanding.