Editing Capacity Limitations Principle (section)

=== Overview ===

The principle of capacity limitations is a concept in cognitive science that states the design of graphics and displays should take account of the limited capacity people have in their working memory and attention to retain and process information. If a message contains excessive information that exceeds people’s capacity to retain and process, it would not to be understood. This principle is commonly used in psychology and other fields to understand and explain why people may struggle with certain tasks or activities. It is based on the idea that people’s abilities are not unlimited and there are limits to what they can do. For example, a person’s working memory has a small and limited capacity, making it difficult to remember a long list of items. Due to the nature of limited capacity in people’s working memory and attention, designs of graphics and displays should contain information that does not exceed the maximum capacity to retain and process. When failing to do so, people will experience cognitive overload and fail to understand the information.