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 instructional design. Extraneous load, however, is generated by the way information is presented to learners; poorly designed materials can unnecessarily increase this load, hindering learning. Germane load, in contrast, is the effort devoted to processing and understanding the underlying schema, which directly contributes to learning. Effective instructional strategies aim to minimize extraneous load while optimizing germane load, thereby facilitating the construction of robust mental models.