ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the factors related to the working memory performance in terms of the cognitive resources and types of mental load that affect the availability of cognitive resources. It focuses on three types of cognitive load—intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load—and their implications in teaching and learning. Redundancy describes a phenomenon in learning in which the learner spends additional mental effort to process: redundant information that he or she has known; or repetitive content through multiple sensory inputs. The chapter identifies intrinsic cognitive load as one of the factors that influences working memory performance. A high level of element interactivity suggests the material is difficult to learn and also means the learners will have high intrinsic cognitive load with fewer cognitive resources available. Besides intrinsic cognitive load, the second goal of instructional design related to optimizing working memory performance is to reduce the mental load irrelevant to knowledge construction.
