Reading Shakespeare
Clifford Werier · 2022
Interface theory and cognitive load theory (CLT) illuminate how Shakespeare’s plays, understood as information mediated by an interface, make specialized cognitive demands on readers. The challenges of such cognitive operations are a function both of the inherent difficulty of reading drama but also of the cognitive load associated with interpreting paratextual materials designed to facilitate comprehension or provide scholarly supports. The extraneous cognitive load defined by CLT demonstrates how book and digital designers of Shakespeare can mitigate these cognitive difficulties by considering the challenges to working memory caused by split attention in busy page and screen interfaces.