The research on cognitive load describes three categories of load: intrinsic load, extraneous load, and germane load (Paas et al., 2003). Intrinsic load refers to the nature of the content and its level of complexity. Complexity can be defined in terms of element interactivity,
or the extent to which a learner must understand instructional content that overlaps and interacts with other instructional content. High content interactivity describes complex relationships in which the various components can only be understood as part of a larger system. Low content interactivity describes information that is more easily understood in isolation,
because it requires an understanding of fewer elements. Learning concepts, for example, would be more likely to involve high element interactivity than learning facts, which would involve low element interactivity. An instructional designer cannot modify intrinsic load because it refers to the complexity of the information itself.