Albers, Michael. (2011). Tapping as a measure of cognitive load and website usability. Proceeding SIGDOC '11 Proceedings of the 29th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication. 10.1145/2038476.2038481. 


University of California, Berkeley

Cognitive load refers to the total amount of mental effort being used in a person’s working memory.

Cognitive load theory can be differentiated into three types:
- Intrinsic cognitive load
- Extraneous cognitive load
- Germane cognitive load

Congitive Load

Intrinsic cognitive load is associated with the complexity of a specific instructional topic and the material's structure. 

For example most of the time on applications’ empty states, we prompt users to complete a task. Here, the copy needs to be short, simple and with the appropriate words in order for the user to be able to easily follow the instructions.

Intrinsic Cognitive Load

Germane cognitive load is the cognitive load devoted to processing information and construction of schemas. The schemas describe a pattern of thought that organizes categories of information and any relationships among them.

One of the reasons we use design patterns is because it’s easier for the users to recognize and learn something new if they can discern it into a pattern from something they already understand.

Germane Cognitive Load

Extraneous cognitive load relates to the impact of the format in which the information is being presented with and the memory needed for "instructional activities"

Extraneous Cognitive Load

Klepsch et al. did an experiment on measuring the three types of cognitive load . Two groups were given a series of 24 tasks of varying cognitive difficulty. One group was taught about the three types of cognitive load before and its participants were asked to rate the cognitive load required for each task on a 7 point likert scale. The uninformed group was given the same task, but asked to answer specific questions regarding cognitive load required for them. The study found that the informed group was better at determining if a high or low germane cognitive load was required for all three types of cognitive load. However, when the questions about germane cognitive load were modified for the uninformed group, they were better able to determine if a task required a low or high germane cognitive load.

Measuring Cognitive Load Using Surveys

In this experiment, Michael Albers employed the finger tapping method to measure users' cognitive load as they were navigating each of the given websites, How Stuff Works and National Institutes of Health. The overall goal of this study was to see if the tapping task is a practical option for measuring the fluctuations in cognitive load. The finger tapping task is a simple motor task in which users are to rhythmically tap one or multiple fingers from their non-dominant hand. For this study, participants were directed to tap their fingers on one hand and to place their other hand on the mouse. Participants were also divided in two groups: technical, those who use a computer for work and personal use, and non-technical, those who use a computer for necessary tasks. For each website, the participants were given 5 cards containing a question with a time limit of 2.5 minutes to answer each question. Because tapping requires the use of at least one hand, participants were to locate the answers to the questions by scrolling through the website. And after each question, the participants must return back to the homepage of the given website. Albers found that “non-technical” participants exhibited slower, quieter and less rhythmic taps when navigating the given website compared to the “technical” participants, which could indicate cognitive overload for the former group. While more research needs to be done on how differences in technical skill levels can impact results, the findings of this study shows the use of the finger tapping method in a usability test to pinpoint specific areas of a product, such as a website, that may contribute to the user’s cognitive overload. 

Learn Before

Related