Variations in task difficulty are reflected in the intrinsic cognitive load scale, with boredom conditions reporting the lowest ICL¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr2·q2·i3large
Currency · newest study 2020 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2023: tool and model accuracy changes quickly
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i3 In the quiz study, participants in the boredom condition reported significantly lower ICL than participants in the flow or overload conditions. → Melina Klepsch 2020
Evidence¶
Melina Klepsch 2020¶
Melina Klepsch, Tina Seufert. (2020). Understanding instructional design effects by differentiated measurement of intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load. Instructional Science (2020) 48:45–77. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-020-09502-9
q2 · i3 · causal · r2
Between-subject experiment (N = 62) in which quiz question difficulty was varied across boredom, flow, and overload conditions and ICL measured with the differentiated questionnaire. The article reports a significant main effect (F(2,59) = 8.76, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.23) and "significantly lower ICL" in the boredom condition.
"Contrasts showed that ICL was lowest for participants in the boredom condition. They reported significantly lower ICL than participants in the flow (T(59) = 3.40, p < 0.01, d = 1.24) or overload (T(59) = 3.84, p < 0.001, d = 1.32) conditions."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Constantly high complexity lowers reported intrinsic cognitive load and metacognitive strategy use compared with gradually increasing complexity — related
- Task difficulty strongly determined task performance: boredom conditions scored highest and overload conditions lowest in both ICL studies — related
- An unexpected effect: task difficulty variation in the Tetris study also produced differences in reported extraneous cognitive load — related
- In a preregistered within-subjects experiment (N = 131, eight measurements), the translated scale showed criterion validity via sensitivity to task complexity, extraneous load, and motivation — related
- Subjective effort ratings are sensitive to variations in task complexity, with higher ratings for complex tasks — related
- Task difficulty shows an inverted U-shaped relation with cognitive strategy use and a positive linear relation with metacognitive strategy use, mediated by cognitive load (Seufert et al., 2024) — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
difficulty-variations-reflected-in-icl-scale |
title |
Variations in task difficulty are reflected in the intrinsic cognitive load scale, with boredom conditions reporting the lowest ICL |
description |
Variations in task difficulty are reflected in the intrinsic cognitive load scale, with boredom conditions reporting the lowest ICL |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2020 |
recheck_by |
2023 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-18 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — melina-klepsch-2020 |
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