Cognitive load theory
by John Sweller · first published 2011
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2recommended by
7HN commenters
2013–2025first – last mentioned
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I'd encourage you to look into Cognitive Load Theory[0]. A key finding is that people are not creative generally but are instead creative relative to their skills. e.g. if you are not a skilled programmer your programming is very unlikely to be creative…
on “The myth of the myth of the lone genius” ↗Do you have recommendations for better references on self-learning? I've read Cognitive Load Theory by Sweller et al., and while a good book, it's not very practically oriented.
on “Tacit knowledge is more important than deliberate practice” ↗…60's and 70's - I remember reading it in papers - but IIRC it didn't really have any formal definition or model at that point. Modern uses of cognitive load track back to John Sweller's development of Cognitive Load Theory in the 80's. It was his work that really popularised it and pushed it out as a well recognised term in things like instructional design and the various disciplines that have morphed into what we now call…
on “Cognitive Overhead, Or Why Your Product Isn’t As Simple As You Think” ↗If you’re still taking notes by hand in lectures, cognitive science says you’re doing it wrong. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT), first introduced by John Sweller (1988), explains why. Our working memory can only hold about 3–5 pieces of information at once. In high-complexity lectures — like biochemistry, law, or neuroscience…
I’ve recently joined Justin Sung’s icanstudy.com.au which is supposed to be an implementation of Cognitive Load Theory’s predictions. I’m finding Cognitive Load Theory to be very useful for improving my personal learning routine. I’ve started reading Sweller’s book and from an evolutionary theory perspective, it really…
on “Cognitive Load Theory” ↗…Ask the Cognitive Scientist articles for the American Federation of Teachers and the associated research papers he quoted. I devoured them all with eyes wide open and jaw firmly on the floor. Next came Cognitive Load Theory, which I was introduced to via the incredible blog of Greg Ashman and our subsequent conversation on my podcast. I was familiar with the work of Dylan Wiliam through the development of my Diagnostic Questions…
on “Math is still catching up to the genius of Ramanujan” ↗I'm not familiar with Sung's videos, but after a quick perusal of his thumbnails I have some knowledge in the various cognitive science concepts he covers (Cognitive Load Theory, Flow, Mindmaps). I didn't really dig into educational theory until I started teaching Computer Science. I wanted to figure out how to better instruct my students after learning about the high drop/fail…
on “Show HN: Anki AI Utils” ↗