{"id":147009,"date":"2026-04-09T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/?post_type=magazine&p=147009"},"modified":"2026-04-08T15:18:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:18:58","slug":"how-learning-can-break-through-in-the-age-of-information-overload-cptm","status":"publish","type":"magazine","link":"https:\/\/trainingindustry.com\/magazine\/spring-2026\/how-learning-can-break-through-in-the-age-of-information-overload-cptm\/","title":{"rendered":"How Learning Can Break Through in the Age of Information Overload"},"author":52,"featured_media":107348,"template":"","tags":[3050,3764,36739],"class_list":["post-147009","magazine","type-magazine","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cognitive-load","tag-corporate-training","tag-employee-focus","global_topic_tax-content-development","global_topic_tax-leadership","magazine_issue_tax-spring-2026","magazine_article_type_tax-info-exchange","magazine_article_type_tax-upskilling-info-exchange"],"acf":{"sponsored":false,"gated":false,"gated_content_type":"","file_attachment":null,"gated_content":"","form_instruction_header":"To access the full article, please fill out the form below:","pardot_html_embed":"","author_override":true,"author_name":"Scott Rutherford, MBA, CPTM","author_image":"","author_bio":"Scott Rutherford, MBA, CPTM, is a communication and learning professional with a background in broadcast journalism, corporate communications and learning and development. He is vice president for marketing at AXIOM Learning Solutions<\/a>, hosts the AXIOM Insights L&D Podcast and is a board member of the Greater Philadelphia chapter of ATD.","excerpt":"As cognitive overload increases, L&D must design learning that reduces distraction and improves focus, retention and performance.","main_content":"It\u2019s a typical Tuesday morning in Newton, Massachusetts, where Sam and Cris live with their young son Dylan and two cats. Typical because Dylan is adamantly resisting getting dressed for preschool, and typical because Cris knows he\u2019s already running late and will need to stop to get gas in the car because it\u2019s nearly empty.\r\n\r\nAlready this morning, since they woke up from their cell phones\u2019 alarms, they\u2019ve dealt with the morning flurry of notifications \u2014 a weather app says there\u2019s a chance of rain later, and Cris\u2019s sleep tracker tells him his REM sleep last night was shorter than usual. Then there\u2019s the news alerts, which seem to be a never-ending series of things to be concerned or angry about. Sam\u2019s quick scroll through a friend\u2019s social media gives her a fix of cute, sandwiched between barely relevant sponsored content. A quick look at the calendar and a few replies shot off, all before getting dressed. Then it\u2019s down to the kitchen and an Alexa with its reminders to buy more trash bags and that a delivery will arrive today.\r\n\r\nNow at the gas station, Cris taps his card to start the pump while trying to ignore the relentless yammer of 10-second content clips and ads coming from the gas pump screen. On the T, Sam studies her phone as she rides, doing her best to avoid the trolley\u2019s distractions while her earbuds give her a loosely strung together sequence of songs punctuated by awkward ad breaks.\r\n\r\nCris, meanwhile, drops Dylan at his daycare, and drives the rest of his 40-minute trip to work. His phone is clipped on the dashboard so Google Maps can help him keep an eye on traffic, but he can\u2019t help but notice the notifications accumulating, one after the next. He resists checking while driving, but he knows they\u2019re lurking, waiting.\r\n\r\nSo why is there a story about a couple of young parents in Boston in this learning and development (L&D) magazine?\r\n\r\nBecause this scenario is typical. Specifics will change, but the underlying truth is this: before your learners connect to work or walk in the workplace door, they\u2019ve already been subjected to a barrage of inputs. Each interaction or piece of information is individually small, but each requires their attention, evaluation and processing: Do I need to do something? Is it important? Can I ignore it?\r\n\r\nDespite being armed with the same human brain our species has had for many hundreds of years, we exist in a society where the ambient cognitive load has grown immensely. UC San Diego researchers Roger Bohn and James Short found in 2012 that the average person consumes 34 gigabytes of information<\/a> on a typical day. This includes about 12 hours per person, per day, of information consumed outside of the workplace. That\u2019s more information than a person would have consumed in an entire lifetime a half-millennia ago.\r\n\r\nFor L&D professionals, it\u2019s important to recognize that starting point as you try to develop a strategy to engage your learners with new information.\r\n