Cognitive Overload: Why Your Brain Struggles to Keep Up

There may be days when you find it difficult to manage multiple tasks all at once to the extent that you feel extremely overwhelmed. You might lose track of time while juggling between deadlines, social life and schedules. Such days can make you feel numb about your feelings. Instances like this are nothing but a common psychological phenomenon called cognitive overload. This article will focus on how cognitive overload is caused due to everyday activities, its impacts and ways to overcome the cognitive demands of day-to-day life. 

What is Cognitive Overload? 

Cognitive Overload is a psychological concept in which an individual exceeds his capacity to perform cognitive functioning at an optimal level. The overwhelming mental demands affect an individual’s ability to process information, consolidate memories and make decisions. This may cause feelings of frustration, stress and reduced performance. The framework of Cognitive Load Theory helps us to understand how an individual may struggle to process, store and retrieve information efficiently. Cognitive load can be classified into three different types, each with differing features and influence on learning and performance. Intrinsic load, Extraneous load, and Germane load are these types. 

1. Intrinsic Load 

Intrinsic load is defined as the built-in difficulty of the material or task presented. It is defined by the complexity of the content being worked upon and the learner’s initial familiarity or expertise in the topic. For instance, the solution to a basic arithmetic problem might have a low intrinsic load for an individual with a high math background, while the same activity might be difficult for an individual with minimal math experience. Intrinsic load cannot be avoided and is directly related to the task or topic being acquired. The more complicated the task, the greater the intrinsic load it will have on cognitive resources. 

2. Extraneous Load 

Extraneous load is the excess, unnecessary cognitive load imposed on someone through weakly designed tasks or distractions. Extraneous load does not help to learn or solve problems and frequently results from distracting or irrelevant features. For instance, if a student is attempting to master a difficult idea but the textbook is badly written with messy visuals or disorienting formatting, the extraneous load is high. The mental effort needed to interpret the disorienting material detracts from the effort to grasp the material itself. 

3. Germane Load 

Germane load is the cognitive effort invested in dealing with new information and figuring out how it works. The germane load is productive since it contributes immediately to learning and solving problems. Germane load has to do with the mental effort involved in coordinating, relating, and interpreting what is being dealt with. Germane load is the constructive side of cognitive load in which the mind is struggling to construct schemas in the head or knowledge structure to aid learning. 

Leading Causes of Cognitive Overload and its Effects in Everyday Life

Among the prominent reasons behind cognitive overload today is the omnipresence of technology, particularly smartphones, social media, and the internet. These websites persistently bomb the users with notices, messages, posts, and commercials, developing an ecosystem whereby the individuals remain distracted and preoccupied all the time. An increased “always-on” culture where the users have to remain online and accessible twenty-four seven widens the gaps even more.

The habitual checking of emails, messages, social media postings, and news feeds creates disjointed attention and a lack of capacity to concentrate intensely on any single task for a prolonged duration. This continuous switching of attention from one set of inputs to another requires greater cognitive resources, eventually culminating in overload. 

The sheer amount of information that an individual is exposed to daily is another major source of cognitive overload. With the age of technology, information has been made more readily available than ever, but this also resulted in an overwhelming amount of data. News articles, videos, blog posts, research papers, and even advertisements are perpetually floating around the internet, having contradictory claims and opinions.

While studies have discovered that humans can’t multitask, they switch involuntarily and repeatedly between tasks, losing cognitive resources along the way in the process, and decreasing efficiency. The psychological pressure of alternating between tasks can result in mistakes, decreased performance, and eventually cognitive overload. 

One of the most frequent effects of cognitive overload is decreased attention span. When an excess amount of information is fed to a person all at once, the mind cannot help but struggle with prioritizing and minimizing unwanted information. Thus, individuals may find it difficult to focus on what they are doing, making errors and not completing the work. This can be very counterproductive in professional or academic settings where consistent concentration is required to achieve success.

Moreover, cognitive overload compromises decision-making abilities. When there is too much information, individuals are immobilized and unable to make the optimal decision since they are overwhelmed by alternative options or warring facts. Paralysis by analysis typically gives rise to belated decisions or poor choices that tend to negatively impact personal and career results. 

Another fatal consequence of intellectual overload is memory process fragmentation. The working brain memory that keeps and juggles information short term has finite capability. When the cognitive load exceeds this capacity, new information cannot be stored or old knowledge recalled. Cognitive overload also reduces creativity and problem-solving abilities.

Creativity tends to thrive when it is in a state of loose focus, and the mind is not filled with cross-purposes or external stimuli. However since humans are bombarded with information, their ability to think outside the box does not exist. Problem-solving is inhibited, as the brain’s resources are pulled too thin to think outside the box. This lack of ability to generate creative solutions can result in inhibiting innovation, something that is highly hazardous in work environments that are based on creative thinking and rapid problem-solving. 

How to deal with Cognitive Overload? 

Manage your time! 

An important strategy to counter cognitive overload is enhancing time management skills. Time management is an issue not only of task organization but also of cognitive resource allocation. By breaking down the day into definite blocks of time and giving each activity sufficient time for accomplishment, people are not tempted to overstuff the hours available to them, and hence, are not likely to cause overload. When tasks are properly prioritized, taking urgency as well as importance into account, people do not feel tugged in two different directions at one time. 

Clear your workstation 

Decluttering one’s surroundings is another important means. A messy workspace, both physical and virtual, can augment cognitive overload as it causes unnecessary distractions and leads to mental clutter. A tidy and arranged workspace encourages a peaceful and concentrated atmosphere where the brain can concentrate on what needs to be accomplished. This involves arranging digital documents, minimizing open programs, and cutting down on device notifications. 

Conclusion 

Cognitive overload is thus a ubiquitous force in modern life, fueled by technology, sheer volume of information, and pressure from society to multitask. Cognitive overload impact is both short term and long term: short term with decreased productivity, stress, and long term in regard to declined cognitive capacity and mental disease. With technology advancing constantly and the information environment becoming increasingly complicated, society and individuals must take steps to control cognitive overload.