Background The integration of AI and digital learning technologies has transformed education but introduced cognitive overload challenges. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) offers a framework for understanding information processing in technology-enhanced environments, yet its intellectual structure in the post-pandemic AI-driven landscape remains underexplored. Summary This bibliometric analysis of 1,600 open-access CLT publications (2021-2025) from HYPERLINK “ https://dimensions.ai/”Dimensions.ai examined publication trends, citation impact, collaboration patterns, and thematic clusters using VOSviewer. Results show 28% annual growth. Three clusters dominate (74% link strength): (a) Educational and Developmental Psychology (motivation, resilience, schema construction); (b) Clinical and Cognitive Sciences (cognitive interventions, well-being); and (c) Information and Computing in Human-centred Contexts (AI-driven adaptive learning). The USA, Australia, and UK lead in impact; Asia-Pacific (China, Singapore, Hong Kong) emerges as a technology-focused hub. Education and Information Technologies showed the highest mean citation rate. Key Message This first bibliometric review maps CLT’s post-2020 evolution toward human-AI symbiosis, providing an empirical framework for cognitively sustainable digital learning environments and confirming CLT’s growing interdisciplinary integration with educational technology and cognitive science.
Gupta et al. (2026) studied this question.