Final answer:
Extraneous overload occurs when essential and extraneous cognitive processing overwhelm a learner's cognitive capacity, hindering their understanding of essential material in a multimedia message.
Step-by-step explanation:
Extraneous overload occurs when the cognitive processing required to understand essential material in a multimedia message and the cognitive processing required to process extraneous material or overcome confusing layout in a multimedia message exceed the learner's cognitive capacity. From a behavioral framework, this statement refers to the idea that when a student is presented with too much information or distracting elements in a multimedia message, it can overwhelm their cognitive abilities, making it difficult for them to understand and learn the essential material. For example, if a student is watching a video tutorial and there are multiple visual effects, distracting background music, or irrelevant information being presented, the student's cognitive resources may be consumed by processing these extraneous elements, leaving less capacity for understanding the main concepts being taught.