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 associated with the inherent difficulty of the material itself, which cannot be altered by instruction. Extraneous load is generated by the way information is presented to learners, and can be reduced through better instructional design. Germane load, on the other hand, is the effort devoted to processing and understanding the material, which directly contributes to learning. Research suggests that effective teaching should aim to minimize extraneous load while optimizing germane load, thereby allowing learners to allocate more cognitive resources to meaningful learning. However, over-simplifying content may reduce intrinsic load to a level that undermines the depth of understanding required for complex problem-solving.