ArticlePerspectives on medical education2015
The evolution of cognitive load theory and its application to medical education.
Article in Perspectives on medical education, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers.
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Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed.
- The power of the pen: effectiveness of hand-drawn schematic diagrams In congenital heart disease ultrasound education for resident physicians : a randomized controlled trial.Journal of cardiothoracic surgery · 2026Trial
- The translation paradox: how full translation increases cognitive load and impairs medical vocabulary retention.BMC medical education · 2026Trial
- Teaching a single manual therapy technique at a time reduces cognitive load in physiotherapy students: a randomized controlled educational study.BMC medical education · 2025Trial
- The use of 3-dimensionally printed models to optimize patient education and alleviate perioperative anxiety in Mohs micrographic surgery: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology · 2019Trial
- An experimental study on the effects of a simulation game on students' clinical cognitive skills and motivation.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2016Trial
- Beyond database training: reconceptualizing information literacy and reading competence as a shared cognitive architecture in medical education.Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA · 2026Article
- A mode comparison study about the effect of tracing on children's poem learning in actual classroom contexts.The British journal of educational psychology · 2026Article
- Developing, designing, and delivering more effective research and didactic presentations: A primer and recommendations.Journal of hospital medicine · 2026Article
- Changes to Master Adaptive Learning in the Pre-Clerkship Phase of Medical School.Medical science educator · 2026Article
- Comparative Analysis of Expert, Clinician, and Health Care User Interactions With Summary of Findings Tables: Usability Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Applying Cognitive Load Theory to Improve Instructional Efficiency and Learner Experience in Current Good Manufacturing Practices Training for Pharmacists.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A Multidimensional Analysis of Shade Selection Difficulty for Indirect Restorations Among Dental Students and Professionals.Dentistry journal · 2026Review
- A novel 'Blended Pedagogy' for integrating bioinformatics into the undergraduate medical curriculum: a pilot study on feasibility and student engagement.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Overview of Quantitative Research.Family medicine · 2026Review
- An educational psychology perspective on health sciences education research.GMS journal for medical education · 2026Article
- A Case-Driven and Knowledge Graph-Supported Approach to Pathology Education: Effects on Knowledge Retention and Clinical Reasoning.Advances in medical education and practice · 2026Article
- Visual cueing and adaptive learning for teaching thyroid eye disease diagnostic assessment to ophthalmology residents.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- The PhD in Graduate Medical Education: Leveraging Doctoral Training for Educational Innovation.HCA healthcare journal of medicine · 2026Article
- Effectiveness of a cognitively grounded mathematics intervention in a high school blended learning environment: achievement gains, implementation fidelity, and demographic variability.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Evaluating the Effectiveness of an Integrated PBL-CBL-TBL Teaching Model in Postgraduate Clinical Training.Advances in medical education and practice · 2026Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) has started to find more applications in medical education research. Unfortunately, misconceptions such as lower cognitive load always being beneficial to learning and the continued use of dated concepts and methods can result in improper applications of CLT principles in medical education design and research. This review outlines how CLT has evolved and presents a synthesis of current-day CLT principles in a holistic model for medical education design. This model distinguishes three dimensions: task fidelity: from literature (lowest) through simulated patients to real patients (highest); task complexity: the number of information elements; and instructional support: from worked examples (highest) through completion tasks to autonomous task performance (lowest). These three dimensions together constitute three steps to proficient learning: (I) start with high support on low-fidelity low-complexity tasks and gradually fade that support as learners become more proficient; (II) repeat I for low-fidelity but higher-complexity tasks; and (III) repeat I and II in that order at subsequent levels of fidelity. The numbers of fidelity levels and complexity levels within fidelity levels needed depend on the aims of the course, curriculum or individual learning trajectory. This paper concludes with suggestions for future research based on this model.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.