Measuring cognitive load

Excerpt

The paper ‘Cognitive load predicts point-of-care ultrasound simulator performance’ by Aldekhyl, Cavalcanti, and Naismith, in this issue of Perspectives on Medical Education [1], is an important paper that adds to work on cognitive load theory and medical education [2‐4]. The implications of the findings of this paper extend substantially beyond the confines of medical practice that is the focus of the work. In this commentary, I will discuss issues associated with obtaining measures of cognitive load independently of content task performance during instruction. I will begin with a brief history of attempts to provide independent measures of cognitive load. …