A Psychologist’s Top 5 Signs Your Cognitive Load Is Too High |
A Psychologist’s Top 5 Signs Your Cognitive Load Is Too High
They’re not all what you think.
Credit: Mangojuicy/Adobe Stock
In 2011, a study of Israeli judges found that in the early sessions of the day, prisoners had roughly a 65% chance of parole. By the end of each session, that probability had fallen to nearly zero. After a break, it returned to 65%. The judges didn’t vary. The cases didn’t get harder. The types of prisoners didn’t change. What changed was the judges’ cognitive resources.
I’ve thought about that study many times, working with leaders. Not because they’re making parole decisions, but because the underlying dynamic is the same. When cognitive load climbs beyond a certain threshold, the quality of thinking degrades in ways we can’t detect from the inside. The brain doesn’t send a notification. What it sends instead is a set of signals, many of which look like the opposite of the problem. Five stand out.
One of the paradoxes of high cognitive load is that it produces a sense of focus. When the brain is overwhelmed, it narrows attention, conserving resources by shutting down peripheral processing. You are concentrating. You feel sharp. What you’ve lost is your awareness of everything outside this tunnel: the........