The authors argue that instructional designers must find methods for achieving instructional control of cognitive load—“instruction should optimize the cognitive load (Cognitive load theory). For the training of complex cognitive tasks, that means that cognitive load should be substantially decreased.” This also would involve more directly measuring cognitive load, so that tasks can be refined. When cognitive load is high, “novices cannot pay attention to relevant problem characteristics necessary for learning”.
The authors suggest that cognitive load can be effectively measured by a mixture of “mental effort” measure (often qualitative ratings) and performance measures.
They recapitulate the argument in Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285 that novice problem-solving strategies create high cognitive load. Complex skill and goal hierarchies (unless automated) will also create higher cognitive load. Experimentally, these situations seem to lead to less learning.
To decrease cognitive load, you need to require less controlled processing (which may mean moving some of it to automatic processing). “Rule automation may be used to refer to the transition from controlled to automatic processing … mainly a function of practice.”
Having decreased cognitive load, you’ll want to focus learners’ attention on task aspects that facilitate schema acquisition. To help with that, you’ll want to eliminate extraneous elements of the task, or make sure that they’ll be automated away. Or you can provide Cognitive scaffolding in the form of worked examples (Worked example effect) or partially completed problems.
Q. What’s meant by “instructional control of cognitive load”?
A. Instructional designers must consciously design their tasks with an awareness of the induced cognitive load; for learning complex tasks, that means cognitive load should be much decreased.