Author Name: Megha Singh Date: 25-03-2026
The proliferation of digital news platforms, social media feeds, push notifications, and 24-hour news cycles has created an unprecedented information environment that systematically challenges human cognitive capacity. This paper provides a comprehensive examination of cognitive overload as a measurable psychological phenomenon in digital news consumption, synthesizing theoretical frameworks, empirical evidence, and psychometric approaches to attentional depletion measurement. Grounded in Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller, 1988), Lang’s Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP; 2000, 2006), and Information Overload Theory (Eppler & Mengis, 2004), the paper demonstrates that the digital news environment creates systematic intrinsic overload through information complexity and volume, extraneous overload through suboptimal presentation design, and attentional competition through multi-platform simultaneity. A meta-analytic summary of LC4MP research (142 articles, 683 effects) reveals pooled effect sizes of r = .314–.398 across cognitive load and memory domains, establishing the empirical magnitude of media-induced cognitive limitation. The paper documents the “doomscrolling” phenomenon—compulsive threat-monitoring news consumption—as a behavioral manifestation of anxious cognitive engagement under overload conditions, validated through the Doomscrolling Scale (DSS; Sharma et al., 2022). Validated measurement instruments are evaluated including NASA-TLX, the Cognitive Load Scale (Leppink et al., 2013), and dual-task methodology. Critical literature gaps include the absence of a news-specific cognitive overload scale, insufficient real-time physiological measurement, and inadequate modeling of notification overload effects. The paper proposes a measurement framework integrating self-report scales, physiological indicators (pupillometry, EEG), and behavioral trace data for comprehensive cognitive overload assessment in digital journalism research.
Keywords:cognitive overload; LC4MP; information overload; doomscrolling; attentional depletion; digital news; cognitive load measurement; news avoidance.
