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, cognitive load theory, developed by John Sweller in the 1980s, posits that instructional design should minimize extraneous cognitive load to facilitate learning. Extraneous load is generated by the manner in which information is presented to learners, such as unnecessary diagrams or redundant text, which does not directly contribute to schema construction. In contrast, intrinsic load is inherent to the complexity of the material itself, and germane load is devoted to processing and automating schemas. Effective teaching materials aim to manage intrinsic load, reduce extraneous load, and promote germane load. Research has shown that when extraneous load is high, learners' performance on problem-solving tasks deteriorates, even if the content is within their capability. Thus, educators are encouraged to streamline presentations to avoid overloading working memory.