If you're involved in marketing technological or professional expertise, you've probably run into the client or boss who insists on delivering so much information that intended receivers are left hopelessly confused.

That's generally because they have little understanding of cognition, which is a loose concept  that describes the human faculty for processing information, applying knowledge and changing preferences. It is often simply called gaining knowledge.

Cognitive load theory suggests that an important factor in knowledge acquisition is human cognitive architecture, made up of short and long term memory. Short term memory, also called working memory, is limited in the number of elements it can contain simultaneously, while long term memory contains structures, or schemas, that allow people to perceive, think, and solve problems.

Sweller suggest that all instruction requires the receiver to process information first in working memory, so for schema acquisition to occur, instruction should be designed to reduce working memory load.

Most marketers working in the professional services, technology, health and science fields position themselves as experts and so their "expertise" marketing use healthy doses of instruction to demonstrate their expertise. 

This is where cognitive load theory is important. Technically challenging or overly complex material puts a heavy load on working memory, and often the complexities are lost because the receiver can't process all the information. Therefore, it's important for expertise marketers to access the long-term memory's schemas, where the receiver merely adds the information to existing understanding structures.

Recommendations growing out of cognitive load theory include:

1. Change problem solving methods to avoid approaches that impose a heavy working memory load.

2. Eliminate the working memory load associated with having to mentally integrate several sources of information by physically integrating those sources of information.

3. Eliminate the working memory load associated with unnecessarily processing repetitive information.

4. Increase working memory capacity by using auditory as well as visual information.

So, in summary: Think before you load up your materials with information. That load could be too much to bear for your intended targets. 

And they'll ignore it.