From Theory to Practice: The Application of Cognitive Load Theory to the Practice of Medicine

Abstract

Cognitive load theory has become a leading model in educational psychology and has started to gain traction in the medical education community over the last decade. The theory is rooted in our current understanding of human cognitive architecture in which an individual’s limited working memory and unlimited long-term memory interact during the process of learning. Though initially described as primarily a theory of learning, parallels between cognitive load theory and broader aspects of medical education as well as clinical practice are now becoming clear. These parallels are particularly relevant and evident in complex clinical environments, like resuscitation medicine. The authors have built on these connections to develop a recontextualized version of cognitive load theory that applies to complex professional domains and in which the connections between the theory and clinical practice are made explicit, with resuscitation medicine as a case study. Implications of the new model for medical education are also presented along with suggested applications.

Understanding Cognitive Load in Digital and Online Learning: a New Perspective on Extraneous Cognitive Load

“…Yet, we know that surgeons need practical training and cannot seamlessly graduate from learning with textbooks to operating on their patients. In this example, extraneous cognitive load arising from potentially overwhelming visual impressions and experiencing an emotionally taxing work environment may all technically be "learning-irrelevant" demands that are still essential parts of the learning task (see Szulewski et al, 2020; see also van Merrienboer & Kirschner, 2018, for an argument for realistic situations in learning).…”

“…As task characteristics such as the nature of the learning test vary, a similar effect can occur in digital learning. For instance, if a learning task induces highly negative emotions that can become an obstacle during learning (e.g., Fraser et al, 2015;Kremer et al, 2019), such a learning task only offers learners an appropriate learning experience if dealing with such emotions is an integral part of the learning task (Szulewski et al, 2020). In the latter case, the negative emotions felt during learning become an intrinsic part of the learning task, while they would constitute an extraneous component otherwise.…”

The future of simulation‐based medical education: Adaptive simulation utilizing a deep multitask neural network

“…Furthermore, it is not necessarily true that worsening patient vital signs increases the cognitive load of a physician in a linear manner. In some instances, equivocal examination findings and diagnostic uncertainty may actually prove more cognitively taxing than a rapidly deteriorating patient 9 . Despite these limitations, we were able to demonstrate that an AR simulation can be designed to dynamically respond to cognitive load.…”

“…In this context, this could be related to the “one‐size‐fits‐all approach” in existing simulation programs in which training typically (1) does not fully replicate complex, real‐life encounters and (2) is not dynamically adapted to suit the cognitive load and level of expertise of the participant. Cognitive load refers to the amount of working memory being used to perform a task 9 …”

Project for Universal Management of Airways – part 1: concept and methods

“…The human brain seeks pattern recognition, particularly in time-pressured situations [5]. Attempts to memorise, recall and implement multiple separate protocols for closely related circumstances as if they were unique events creates the potential for confusion and contributes to cognitive overload [3,6,7]. Embedding the common themes present in existing guidelines [3] into a single resource and highlighting a limited number of situation-specific caveats and exceptions should help optimise real-world performance.…”