Brünken, R., Plass, J.. L., & Leutner, D. (2003). Direct Measurement of Cognitive Load in Multimedia Learning. Educational Psychology, 38(1), 53-61. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_7.

Direct measurement of cognitive load in multimedia learning

A direct, observable measurement of extraneous cognitive load based on working memory research, whereby a participant must work on two tasks simultaneously, a primary and secondary task. Participants must attend to two tasks that utilize the same cognitive resources. If extraneous cognitive load is too high, i.e. the presentation of text is incoherent, then performance on both tasks suffers.

Dual-task methodology

1. Mostly used to measure overall cognitive load. 
2. DeLeeuw et al. 2008 suggest that effort rating is correlated with extraneous load and intrinsic load. 
3. Paas 1992 utilizes a 9-grade symmetrical category scale from very, very low mental effort (1) to very, very high mental effort (9).
4. Castro-Alonso et al.  slightly modified scale from Paas 1992 to be "How much mental effort did you invest in completing the task?"; range = 1 (extremely small amount) to 9 (extremely large amount). 

Effort Rating

A measurement of human workload. Contains six question items: mental demand, physical demand, temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration. Assign weights to answers according to task type. 

NASA-TLX

9-point Likert scale of 6 categories, higher scores indicate greater loads.

Eysink et al. (2009) Scale

2 scales for measuring different types of cognitive load.

Leppink et al. (2013) Scales

1. Effort rating 
2. NASA TLX
3. Scale by Eysink et al. (2009)
4. Scales by Leppink et al. (2013)
5. Dual-task methodology

Johns Hopkins University

DePaul University

The working memory load that some biologically secondary information imposes. Cognitive load is determined by element interactivity. 

Cognitive Load

Processing a large number of elements of information in the working memory simultaneously generates high element interactivity, which translates into higher cognitive load. 

Cognitive Load and Element Interactivity

There are three types of cognitive load: intrinsic cognitive load, extraneous cognitive load, and germane cognitive load. 

Types of Cognitive Load

Novakian concept maps lowers the intrinsic cognitive load because it presents the knowledge in a more readily acceptable manner which lessons the requirement for the brain to form schemas in understanding the relation of elements of information provided in passages; however, it creates a greater extraneous cognitive load (i.e., the overhead of extraneous cognitive load increases at a higher rate than the decrease of intrinsic cognitive load when the concept map gets larger). Consider the listed effects.

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