TOEFL Speaking Task 3

The concept of 'cognitive load' refers to the total amount of mental effort being used in the working memory. It is often discussed in educational psychology because it can affect how well students learn new information. When cognitive load is too high, learners may struggle to process and retain material. However, instructional designers can reduce extraneous cognitive load by presenting information in a clear and organized way, allowing learners to focus on essential content.

Professor: Let me give you an example from a real classroom. In one study, a biology teacher taught the same lesson on photosynthesis to two groups of students. The first group received a textbook page with dense paragraphs of text and a separate diagram at the bottom. The students had to constantly flip between the text and the diagram, which made it hard to connect ideas. As a result, they often felt confused and performed poorly on a quiz. The second group received a page where the text was integrated with the diagram, with labels and arrows directly on the image. These students could see the process step by step without extra searching. They reported feeling less overwhelmed and scored significantly higher on the same quiz. This shows how reducing extraneous cognitive load can improve learning.