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Cognitive load theory has been very influential in educational psychology during the last decade in providing guidelines for instructional design. Whereas numerous empirical studies have used it as a theoretical framework, a closer analysis reveals some fundamental conceptual problems within the theory. Various generalizations of empirical findings become questionable because the theory allows different and contradicting possibilities to explain some empirical results. The article investigates these theoretical problems by analyzing the conceptual distinctions between different kinds of cognitive load. It emphasizes that reduction of cognitive load can sometimes impair learning rather than enhancing it. Cognitive load theory is reconsidered both from the perspective of Vygotski's concept of the zone of proximal development and from the perspective of research on implicit learning. Task performance and learning are considered as related, but nevertheless fundamentally different processes. Conclusions are drawn for the further development of the theory as well as for empirical research and instructional practice.Questions of central importance are: What goes on in the mind of the learner when spoken or written texts with or without static or animated pictures or graphs are presented to him or her? How can the displayed information be adapted to the limitations of the cognitive system?The necessity of adapting instruction to the constraints of the learner's cognitive system has been the main concern of cognitive load theory, which has been developed by John Sweller and his colleagues and which has become increasingly influential in instructional psychology (cf. Sweller et al. 1998). The fundamental claim of this theory is that without knowledge about the human cognitive architecture the effectiveness of instructional design is likely to be random. More specifically, cognitive load theory argues that many traditional instructional techniques do not adequately take into account the limitations of the human cognitive architecture, as they unnecessarily overload the learner's working memory, the central "bottleneck" of his/her cognitive system. Accordingly, cognitive load theory tries to integrate knowledge about the structure and functioning of the human cognitive system with principles of instructional design.Numerous empirical studies have demonstrated that traditional instruction can and should be re-designed according to principles of cognitive load theory, and that this re-design results in better learning. However, there are also numerous conceptual problems related to cognitive load theory, which sometimes make interpretation of empirical findings difficult. Although the concept of cognitive load has been frequently described in general terms and although definitions have been provided for different kinds of cognitive load, a closer look reveals that the exact nature of these different kinds of load is not sufficiently clear yet. Further clarification is needed regarding the relations between different kinds of ...

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Computer-based multimedia learning environments make it possible to present interactive animated pictures, which can be manipulated for active exploratory learning and which allow the dynamic behavior ofcomplex subject matter to be displayed. Due to the large range of possibilities for exploratory interaction, such learning environments seem well suited for co-operative learning in which different learners analyse the presented subject matter from different perspectives. This paper first describes a theoretical framework for learning from texts and pictures together with an analysis ofpossible effects of animation and interactivity on knowledge acquisition. It then presents two empirical studies in which knowledge acquisition from interactive animated pictures was compared with knowledge acquisition from static pictures under the conditions of individual learning (Study I) and of cooperative learning (Study II). In Study I, learning with interactive animated pictures resulted in a superior encoding of detail information, but did not facilitate performance of mental simulation tasks. In Study II, learning with interactive animated pictures resulted both in inferior encoding of detail information and poorer results in mental simulations. These findings and the analysis of discourse protocols of subjects' co-operation suggest that exploratory learning with interactive animated pictures is associated with extraneous cognitive load and that this load can be further increased by the co-ordination demands of co-operative learning. Although animated pictures may provide external support for mental simulations, they do not appear to be generally beneficial for learning, because they can prevent individuals from performing relevant cognitive processes.

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