The term “cognitive load” refers to the amount of information that one’s working memory can hold. Unlike long-term memory, which has an unlimited capacity, working memory is limited in the amount of information it can process at one time. Our working memory, however, is highly susceptible to overload, which occurs when a person encounters more information than their brain can process. As a result of this cognitive overload, one’s ability to learn suffers, and the comprehension of what is being read becomes more difficult.
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According to researchers, such as Erping Zhu, interactive websites and reading online is a great source of cognitive overload. Zhu conducted an experiment to see how the use of hypertext influenced the reading comprehension of a group of students. She had two groups read the same piece of writing online, but “varied the number of links included in the passage” (Carr, 128). As a result, Zhu found that,
Reading comprehension declined as the number of links increased. Readers were forced to devote more and more of their attention and brain power to evaluating the link and deciding whether to click on them. That left less attention and few cognitive resources to devote to understanding what they were reading (Carr, 128).
Through her experiment, therefore, Zhu was able to conclude that there was a strong correlation between the number of links in an online source and cognitive overload. Consequently, cognitive overload can greatly affect the reading comprehension of online readers.
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In 2005, psychologists Diana DeStefano and Jo-Anne LeFevre completed a comprehensive review of thirty-eight experiments involving the use of hypertext by undergraduate students. As in the case of Zhu, DeStefano and LeFevre found that interactive websites and hypertext greatly decreased the reading comprehension of its users, especially when compared to the performance of students reading in a linear fashion (1622). According to their conclusions, working memory does not function well with the increasing decision-making associated with interactive websites and the use of hypertext (DeStefano annd LeFevre, 1617). As a result of cognitive overload, online users are reading less, and resorting to a behaviour known as “power-browsing” or skimming.
Despite how bleak this may seem, there are nevertheless a number of ways in which website designers and course instructors can attempt to avoid cognitive overload. Some of these solutions include using modules, breaking content apart, considering the expertise of the learner, and removing extraneous material. For a more detailed description of these solutions click here.
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Sources
Carr, Nicholas G. The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
Return to: 3.0 Disadvantages of Interactive Websites
Previous Page: 3.1 The Internet is changing our brains
Next Page: 3.3 Is Google making us stupid?
Sources
Bozarth, Jane. “Nuts and Bolts: Brain Bandwidth – Cognitive Load Theory and Instructional Design.” Learning Solutions Magazine, August 3rd, 2010. Web.
Carr, Nicholas G. The shallows: what the Internet is doing to our brains. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.
DeStefano, D., and J.A. LeFevre. “Cognitive load in hypertext reading: A review.” Computers in Human Behaviour 23.3 (2007): 1616-1641. Web.