#cognitive load theory

[bitchesgetriches]

✨NEW POST!✨

Anti-Goblin Mode: The Game I Play Every Day to Reprogram My Disorganized Brain 

It’s finally time to talk about Anti-Goblin Mode: my secret holy grail technique for conquering executive dysfunction in my home, my work, and my life in general.

I’ve never written about it before. It seemed too personal and too silly to share. But since I discovered it, I’ve used it nearly every day of my life—and the transformation has been permanent and incredible. And as our patrons demanded an article on becoming organized, its time has come!

One of the best pieces of general life advice I’ve ever received is this: never ask a natural talent to be your teacher. If they came out of the womb composing piano sonatas, don’t ask them to teach you piano! They literally don’t understand the experience of not knowing what they know! This holds true in organization, too. I find that most “organizational systems” were written by people with a natural talent for organization. Y’know—monsters who can keep a white rug clean. Their advice shouldn’t be trusted. Instead, the best teachers are people who struggled and persevered in the face of mediocrity.

On this point, I’m happy to attest that neither nature nor nurture set me up to be an organized person. I grew up the undiagnosed ADHD child of an undiagnosed ADHD parent who was also a hoarder! That means I’ve earned my organized life valiantly, on the battlefield.

So how? How did I become an organized person? I’m happy to tell you it’s not rigid, or complicated, or super philosophical, or time-consuming. I developed a game to help me do it. It’s very simple, but it’s transformed my life for the better. And I hope it might help you too.

KEEP READING.

Did we just help you out? Say thanks on Patreon!

[richardtheteacher]

Richard James Rogers, award-winning author and pedagogical expert, describes the process of interleaving. Rogers is the first person ever to describe generalisable rules for applying interleaving in the secondary classroom.

[the-wormwormworm]

Germane Cogntive Load

This post is a revisit to previous work on Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and re-focuses on the germane cognitive load aspect. Germane refers to the work put into creating a permanent store of knowledge, your long-term memory.The germane processes are a function of the learners cognitive resources available and, also are attributible to the learner’s motivation.  Germane load refers to the effort…

[thealchemyofgamecreation]

Mastering Cognitive Load: Unlocking the Secrets of Game Design

Discover the cognitive load theory in my latest game design blog article! Where I explore the powerful influence of cognitive load theory on creating captivating games. #GameDesign #IndieGameDev #UXDesign #GameDev #AdobeFirefly

[dannysciencefix]

Cognitive Theory and Primary Science Teaching

Cognitive science is gaining increasing influence in education and many existing and developing educational approaches are described as ‘inspired by cognitive science’. Many of these approaches have been long practiced or described as effective pedagogy without any reference to cognitive science – for example, quizzing pupils on topics has been common even without this being thought of as a form…

[tanadrin]

I would love to hear the rant about social media doomerism and conspiracy

I’m on my phone right now but the summary version is something like:

Humans are bad at integrating information into their worldview accurately bc of various cognitive biases

Social media incentivizes us seeking out content that excites fear or anger or irritation

Social media thus causes us to form negative impressions of the world bc it mediates so much information consumption and discourse these days

This general negative affective impression is subject to high confirmation bias and ppl in general are really bad at divorcing an affective impression of a thing from their dispassionate reasoning abt a thing

(Bc one of the functions of an affective impression is to “cache” our conclusions about a topic to save time and effort later)

(In general if you are a cynic and pessimist you can fall prey to these biases w/o social media but I think social media makes more ppl susceptible to them)

People don’t want to be dupes so they seek refuge in cynicism. We treat cynicism as wise or worldly when in fact cynicism makes you a dupe and an easy mark for grifters. Cynicism and low trust foster conspiracism, paranoia, and antisocial politics

(This is why so many congenitally contrarian folks seem to flit effortlessly between the far left and far right; it’s not horseshoe theory, they’ve just cooked their brains on this stuff)

This is a world where populist anti-social politicians like Trump and the AfD thrive, bc they will lie about how everything is terrible and people will nod along, bc it explains why their social media is full of awful stories of, like, immigrants eating pets and shit

But it doesn’t just have to be insane lies only a moron could believe. It can be any impression about a fact in the world that it is difficult to personally check and which is vulnerable to being swayed by anecdote

This is how we get a word where people think crime rates are higher than they’ve ever been when in fact crime is falling

Or child predators lurk around every corner when in fact children are safer than ever

Or the American economy is in a recession when in fact it’s doing historically well by just about every available metric (now with full employment AND low inflation!)

Because in a big world even where things are in general good and getting better you can always produce infinite individual examples of shitty things and pipe those in a steady stream into people’s eyeballs, and then point to that and leverage people’s low trust attitudes and their cynicism which tells them they are smarter than the experts and go “statistics is just a fancy way to lie! The world is secretly terrible! Every bad thing is even worse than you thought and every good thing is a lie!”

(Nevermind the whole phenomenon where anything that is complicated or that someone does not themselves understand gets treated like it’s actually secret and a conspiracy.)

And here I know I have to include some disclaimer about how this is not to discount individual cases of suffering or struggle, which are real, or that there are indeed some really awful things happening in the world right now, which there are, but you know what?

I’m tired of doing that. People with reading comprehension operating in good faith ought to be able to deduce that general statements do not obviate particular exceptions, and people who cling to their doomerism as a kind of emotional life raft do not generally argue with me in good faith.

Sometimes doomerism is a load-bearing pillar of their politics, which I think is dumb—I think you can be a leftist or a progressive without being a doomer! In fact I think doomerism is antithetical to useful politics!

Sometimes they are just depressed and treatment-resistant. Sometimes they are just angry misanthropes who want to feel justified in their misanthropy. Some doomers are themselves in bad circumstances and feeling hopeless about that—to them I am enormously sympathetic. Though a lot of doomers will admit they personally are doing OK—this does not seem to be most doomers.

But I think in general cynicism and doomerism and a worldview dominated by a general nebulous air of Everything Is Awful and by abstract nouns with threatening auras is not conducive to wisdom or understanding or useful politics or leading a happy and fulfilling life.

[brazenautomaton]

Dude, do you just not know what "weltgeist" means? Is that what's going on?

It's the world-spirit, which I know, and I know you know, and you know I know. You are pretending to be stupid in order to somehow tell yourself you've humiliated and dunked on me, but it's got nothing to do with reality. I'm guessing you think it's going to make me go on some fascist tear, because you cannot distinguish "fascist" from "person who thinks I am wrong." Because as previously stated, communists do not understand "wrong" the way fish do not understand "wet."

That entire thread is people saying "that is incorrect, that is not true, that is not a true statement" and communists being unable to grasp the concept of someone thinking a statement isn't true. You can't ever respond to the thing someone is saying, because you have such a disorted worldview and such a lack of cognitive empathy you can't envision a mental state other than your own. Anyone who says "that thing you said isn't true" must be either deliberately on the side of Capital, or been tricked into repeating propaganda from them. Because everything about your ideology is so completely factually incorrect, that you've lost the ability to check things against reality. If you did, you'd realize all of your Marxist theory was horseshit. That's why all you can do is tell others to read Marx, that's why all you can do is sneer and imply that other people are ignorant, and you fall the fuck apart the moment you try to explain anything or make any positive claim.

Now say something glib and pretending to be stupid so you can roll your eyes and make "get a load of this guy" gestures to your friends and remind the rest of us that life is not worth tolerating.

[iamthekaijuking]

As someone who has done significantly more research into animal physiology, evolution, and ecology, what have you find to be very correlated or acting as a prerequisite for higher cognition in animals. I have read of having a real brain instead of just ganglia being important, as well as a general brain-to-body size ratio correlating well (though it seems like encephalization quotient is better as a measurement). The fact that octopi are so darn weirdly smart, as well as being an entire Order (not just a Genus of even Family like I assumed before looking into it) makes me wonder about what makes their evolutionary history so distinct or gave sufficient prerequisite for their high intellect.

Obviously as someone who doesn’t actually have a degree in any of the fields I research and instead just have biology autism, I can’t say my answer would be 100% accurate, but I’ll try my best and if anyone wants to add to this they’re welcome to.

Higher intelligence is such a loaded and complex question that we just don’t have a definitive answer for yet, because there’s so much we don’t understand about intelligence itself! And it’s likely that higher intelligence itself doesn’t have a singular cause. There’s many different kinds of intelligence and traditionally “dumb” animals can be more intelligent than us in certain areas! But if I had to list things that could allow for sapience to evolve…

Endothermy or at least regional endothermy. In order for a brain to be very active and sapient it needs to have high cellular activity in its neurons, which a cold blooded creature usually has a hard time with (there are exceptions like octopus and tegu).

It needs to be a large somewhat long lived social animal that learns behaviors and can reproduce multiple times in its life, meaning that it can accumulate knowledge and has a method of transferring this to its young or young of the same species.

Obvious one but tool use (duh). A sapient species needs to recognize that it can use things separate from its being as extensions of itself to get what it wants. We can probably throw in the mirror test too.

Pattern recognition. ABSOLUTELY PATTERN RECOGNITION. A sapient creature has to be able to recognize things that are repeated and what they mean/are correlated to, and their brain needs to chemically reward them for picking up on it. Humans are the biggest example of this because recognizing patterns is so hard baked into us as a species that it’s literally everywhere in our society. Hell, one of the biggest theories for why we invented music is because we like recognizing patterns.

It essentially needs to be stuck between a rock and a hard place. It has to have selective pressure to think to survive. Maybe it has to contend with drastic seasonal changes and how to survive them, or maybe it needs to out-think predators.

High energy diet. A big brain needs lots of power and proteins. So a diet of meat, fruits, nuts, roots, sugars, etc. all of these have relatively high caloric value. Cooking food as well exponentially increases the amount of nutrients you can get out of it. Amino acids are curled up into different shapes because of their electrical charges and a lot of the energy that goes into digestion is spent just unraveling amino acids so that they can be transported and used. But if amino acids are exposed to high enough temperatures then they unravel on their own, so by using this little physics hack a sapient creature can get more bang for their buck.

Those are the things that I can hazard a guess can lead to sapience when all put together.

The reason why octopus are so smart is because they fall into that “rock and a hard place” category. They’re squishy, unarmored, and very tasty so they needed to outsmart their predators.

[televised-eyes]

It really saddens me to see Aziraphale get the full force of everyone’s contempt over his reaction to the kiss & here's why:

What do we know about Aziraphale's true character? What they we been shown? Well, he’s a silly angel, who cares too much, loves his partner Crowley and truly wants to do what he believes is the right thing!

Don't get me wrong, I can see why a lot of people side and identify with Crowley after the final fifteen, given his trauma and the fact that he was the one making himself vulnerable by initiating the kiss.

But here the thing: it’s not like Aziraphale acted out of character after hearing Crowley’s proposal. We, as the audience, have been shown multiple times when Crowley has begged for them to run away together and every time we’ve seen it, it has been in a situation where Crowley wants to abandon all responsibility. It’s a trauma response and I don’t blame Crowley for being traumatized by Heaven and Hell. Just like I don’t blame him for not wanting to go back to either.

But Aziraphale has never responded positively to this proposition before. The only difference this time was the kiss. A beautiful, desperate, awkward kiss!

Aziraphale has always been wired to take responsibility and direct action even when he shouldn’t. For him, Azi’s personal code is to always do what he believes is the right thing to do, even if it might not end well. He gives the flaming sword to humanity, he saves Job’s children, he discorporates himself to stop the apocalypse, he does the thing with the halo.

I just don’t buy the narrative that he chose Heaven over Crowley. I think Aziraphale chose Heaven *because* of Crowley. He knew as long as he was in charge, he could keep Crowley safe.

Azi clearly loves Crowley despite his cognitive dissonance at all times. He can talk all the livelong day about how they "aren’t friends," but his actions speak the opposite. He cares deeply for Crowley. Azi trusts Crowley, he lets him get “plenty of use” out of the bookshop, he turns a neighborhood association meeting into a cotillion ball so that he can dance with him, he risked an eternity in Hell by wearing Crowley’s face.

He also knows that Crowley always comes back especially his angel needs him. Unless Crowley does a 180 and returns to Hell to actively thwart Heaven out of spite (which ngl that would great television & a theory I’d like to dwell deeper into elsewhere) this was just another disagreement and they will work it out somehow by working together. And hopefully learn how to communicate clearly!

The very root of the argument was misunderstanding and failure of communication on both sides.

The more I think about the “I forgive you” line, the more I think it may have just been Azi’s gut reaction to read the kiss as one of Crowley’s “temptations.” It’s a loaded word, but I think most people read the kiss as a last act of desperation to convince him to run away. In the past, we have seen Azi’s automatic response to what he feels like is a temptation from Crowley has always been to “forgive” him.

Is it irritating? Yes. Is it good communication? No. Is it a trauma response? I think yes.

I think that’s why the ending of season 2 didn’t upset me as much as it has upset others. I feel like I understand both sides—both how and why Crowley and Aziraphale make their decisions—because the writing is so damn good.

*Aziraphale did not reject or abandon Crowley.*

That last look at Crowley before stepping into the elevator was not a “good bye” or a “fuck you.” I truly believe he looked back to remind himself why he’s doing what he’s doing in the first place!!!

Aziraphale is protecting Crowley because he loves Crowley and believes their relationship is not only worth making sacrifices for, but also strong enough to withstand them!

[bitchesgetriches]

Anti-Goblin Mode: The Game I Play Every Day to Reprogram My Disorganized Brain

NEW POST + VIDEO! Anti-Goblin Mode: The Game I Play Every Day to Reprogram My Disorganized Brain.

It’s finally time to talk about Anti-Goblin Mode: my secret holy grail technique for conquering executive dysfunction in my home, my work, and my life in general. I’ve never written about it before. It seemed too personal and too silly to share. But since I discovered it, I’ve used it nearly every day of my life—and the transformation has been permanent and incredible. And as our patrons…

[compneuropapers]

Interesting Papers for Week 20, 2025

How Do Computational Models in the Cognitive and Brain Sciences Explain? Brun, C., Konsman, J. P., & Polger, T. (2025). European Journal of Neuroscience, 61(2).

Sleep microstructure organizes memory replay. Chang, H., Tang, W., Wulf, A. M., Nyasulu, T., Wolf, M. E., Fernandez-Ruiz, A., & Oliva, A. (2025). Nature, 637(8048), 1161–1169.

Dendrites endow artificial neural networks with accurate, robust and parameter-efficient learning. Chavlis, S., & Poirazi, P. (2025). Nature Communications, 16, 943.

Modelling sensory attenuation as Bayesian causal inference across two datasets. Eckert, A.-L., Fuehrer, E., Schmitter, C., Straube, B., Fiehler, K., & Endres, D. (2025). PLOS ONE, 20(1), e0317924.

Synaptic basis of feature selectivity in hippocampal neurons. Gonzalez, K. C., Negrean, A., Liao, Z., Terada, S., Zhang, G., Lee, S., Ócsai, K., Rózsa, B. J., Lin, M. Z., Polleux, F., & Losonczy, A. (2025). Nature, 637(8048), 1152–1160.

Fast updating feedback from piriform cortex to the olfactory bulb relays multimodal identity and reward contingency signals during rule-reversal. Hernandez, D. E., Ciuparu, A., Garcia da Silva, P., Velasquez, C. M., Rebouillat, B., Gross, M. D., Davis, M. B., Chae, H., Muresan, R. C., & Albeanu, D. F. (2025). Nature Communications, 16, 937.

Theory of morphodynamic information processing: Linking sensing to behaviour. Juusola, M., Takalo, J., Kemppainen, J., Haghighi, K. R., Scales, B., McManus, J., Bridges, A., MaBouDi, H., & Chittka, L. (2025). Vision Research, 227, 108537.

Network structure influences the strength of learned neural representations. Kahn, A. E., Szymula, K., Loman, S., Haggerty, E. B., Nyema, N., Aguirre, G. K., & Bassett, D. S. (2025). Nature Communications, 16, 994.

Delayed Accumulation of Inhibitory Input Explains Gamma Frequency Variation with Changing Contrast in an Inhibition Stabilized Network. Krishnakumaran, R., Pavuluri, A., & Ray, S. (2025). Journal of Neuroscience, 45(5), e1279242024.

Predicting the Irrelevant: Neural Effects of Distractor Predictability Depend on Load. Lui, T. K., Obleser, J., & Wöstmann, M. (2025). European Journal of Neuroscience, 61(2).

The time course and organization of hippocampal replay. Mallory, C. S., Widloski, J., & Foster, D. J. (2025). Science, 387(6733), 541–548.

Anisotropy of the Orientation Selectivity in the Visual Cortex Area 18 of Cats Reared Under Normal and Altered Visual Experience. Merkulyeva, N., Lyakhovetskii, V., & Mikhalkin, А. (2025). European Journal of Neuroscience, 61(2).

The calcitron: A simple neuron model that implements many learning rules via the calcium control hypothesis. Moldwin, T., Azran, L. S., & Segev, I. (2025). PLOS Computational Biology, 21(1), e1012754.

High-Density Recording Reveals Sparse Clusters (But Not Columns) for Shape and Texture Encoding in Macaque V4. Namima, T., Kempkes, E., Zamarashkina, P., Owen, N., & Pasupathy, A. (2025). Journal of Neuroscience, 45(5), e1893232024.

Ventral hippocampus to nucleus accumbens shell circuit regulates approach decisions during motivational conflict. Patterson, D., Khan, N., Collins, E. A., Stewart, N. R., Sassaninejad, K., Yeates, D., Lee, A. C. H., & Ito, R. (2025). PLOS Biology, 23(1), e3002722.

Hippocampal coding of identity, sex, hierarchy, and affiliation in a social group of wild fruit bats. Ray, S., Yona, I., Elami, N., Palgi, S., Latimer, K. W., Jacobsen, B., Witter, M. P., Las, L., & Ulanovsky, N. (2025). Science, 387(6733).

Diverse neuronal activity patterns contribute to the control of distraction in the prefrontal and parietal cortex. Sapountzis, P., Antoniadou, A., & Gregoriou, G. G. (2025). PLOS Biology, 23(1), e3003008.

The role of oscillations in grid cells’ toroidal topology. Sarra, G. di, Jha, S., & Roudi, Y. (2025). PLOS Computational Biology, 21(1), e1012776.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Neuronal Gamma Oscillations During Occlusion Events in Infants. Slinning, R., Agyei, S. B., Kristoffersen, S. H., van der Weel, F. R. (Ruud), & van der Meer, A. L. H. (2025). Developmental Psychobiology, 67(1).

The Brain’s Sensitivity to Sensory Error Can Be Modulated by Altering Perceived Variability. Tang, D.-L., Parrell, B., Beach, S. D., & Niziolek, C. A. (2025). Journal of Neuroscience, 45(5), e0024242024.

[richardtheteacher]

What is Dual Coding?

A blog post by Richard James Rogers (Award-Winning Author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management and The Power of Praise: Empowering Students Through Positive Feedback). This blog post has been beautifully illustrated by Pop Sutthiya Lertyongphati. As educators, we’re always on the lookout for strategies that can enhance our students’ understanding and retention of information. One such…

[the-wormwormworm]

Cognitive Load Theory: Implications for nursing education and research

Cognitive Load Theory: Implications for nursing education and research #Nurseeducator #nursing #adultlearning

Journal Club Article: Chen, R., Dore, K., Grierson, L. E., Hatala, R., & Norman, G. (2014). Cognitive Load Theory: Implications for nursing education and research. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research Archive, 46(2). Background Students in nursing and health education programs acquire a body ofknowledge, skills, and attitudes during their education in preparation for future practice. Use the…

[dayacakrawala]

Oh, that's hilarious if Overlord kidnapped Trepan with the intention to learn how to fuck people directly in the brain right from the start. Break them, control them. And then he got loads and LOADS of theory on data storage and architecture, on memory mechanisms, and neural circuitry, and cognitive processes (I imagine it as overlapping computer science and psychology since they're fucking robots). Trepan was like a damn Scheherazade. The more theory he feeds Overlord (promising that maybe soon they'd get to practice), the longer he'll live.

[labelleizzy]

Work smarter not harder

Wise and important words from sociologist Jennifer Walter about what is happening in this country right now and what to do about it:

"As a sociologist, I need to tell you:

Your overwhelm is the goal.

1/ The flood of 200+ executive orders in Trump's first days exemplifies Naomi Klein's "shock doctrine" - using chaos and crisis to push through radical changes while people are too disoriented to effectively resist. This isn't just politics as usual - it's a strategic exploitation of cognitive limits.

2/ Media theorist McLuhan predicted this: When humans face information overload, they become passive and disengaged. The rapid-fire executive orders create a cognitive bottleneck, making it nearly impossible for citizens and media to thoroughly analyze any single policy.

3/ Agenda-setting theory explains the strategy: When multiple major policies compete for attention simultaneously, it fragments public discourse. Traditional media can't keep up with the pace, leading to superficial coverage.

The result? Weakened democratic oversight and reduced public engagement.

What now?

1/ Set boundaries: Pick 2-3 key issues you deeply care about and focus your attention there. You can't track everything - that's by design. Impact comes from sustained focus, not scattered awareness.

2/ Use aggregators & experts: Find trusted analysts who do the heavy lifting of synthesis. Look for those explaining patterns, not just events.

3/ Remember: Feeling overwhelmed is the point. When you recognize this, you regain some power. Take breaks. Process. This is a marathon.

4/ Practice going slow: Wait 48hrs before reacting to new policies. The urgent clouds the important. Initial reporting often misses context

5/ Build community: Share the cognitive load. Different people track different issues. Network intelligence beats individual overload.

Remember: They want you scattered. Your focus is resistance.

[nanditav]

We live in an age of unmatched accessibility, where information, entertainment, social connection, and even basic needs are available instantly with little effort. While this marks significant progress in human development, it also brings subtle consequences, especially for our cognitive growth. The culture of instant gratification, powered by smartphones, the internet, and AI, is reshaping how we think, learn, and process information. Everything is designed for speed and ease, but this convenience often comes at the expense of patience, effort, and deep reflection.

The effects are most apparent in children, who are growing up in environments where waiting, struggling, or problem-solving are no longer necessary. Vygotsky’s theory of the Zone of Proximal Development shows that true learning happens when children are pushed just beyond their current capabilities with support. Easy access bypasses this zone, weakening learning. Similarly, Cognitive Load Theory reveals that overreliance on external aids like Google and AI prevents the development of mental structures necessary for deeper understanding and problem-solving. The brain, like a muscle, grows through challenge, and when those challenges are removed, so is growth.

This doesn’t mean progress is harmful, rather, it needs balance. Technology should enhance thinking, not replace it. Encouraging delayed gratification, promoting active learning, and creating space for patience and deep engagement can help preserve cognitive strength in a world wired for instant rewards. After all, ease is valuable, but not when it comes at the cost of the very mental effort that builds intelligence, creativity, and resilience.