ABSTRACT
People tend toward the paths of least resistance, whether it means taking escalators over stairs or using calculators over computation by hand. This creates special challenges for developing the mind and body, as the paths of least resistance rarely result in effective learning or fitness gains. This resistance can be conceptualized as a kind of performance load, and understanding and meting out the appropriate quantities and types of loads is fundamental to creating effective learning experiences. Performance load refers to the total effort that is required to do something, both physical and mental. Further, the performance load of an activity has elements that are intrinsic and extraneous. The high-cognitive-load group will make about five times more errors than the low-cognitive-load group. Groups can reduce the performance load of tasks by distributing the load among its members. If group governance is inefficient, the bureaucracy of the group interaction adds extraneous load to the task.
