Surgical training quite often occurs in high-stakes environments, requiring the learner to rapidly acquire complex and difficult skills under close supervision. Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) provides a practical framework to design teaching that matches a trainee’s working memory capacity, reducing overload and enhancing learning. This poster explores the principles of CLT and demonstrates how they can be applied to surgical simulation, intraoperative teaching, and structured skills acquisition. CLT distinguishes three types of cognitive load. Intrinsic load reflects inherent difficulty of a task (e.g., learning vascular anastomosis). Extraneous load arises from a suboptimal instructional design. This may include poorly structured teaching or a distracting environment. Germane load represents the mental effort directed toward developing long-term skills and surgical schemas. Practical teaching strategies should therefore be developed to address these types of cognitive load. This could include breaking procedures into instructional smaller, manageable steps to match intrinsic load. Careful consideration should also be given to the environment the trainee is learning in, as well as conscious attention toward the structure of the teaching. Additionally, deliberate practice should be encouraged to enhance germane load. This poster will explore the underpinnings to CLT in surgical training, and the potential benefits in integrating these principles into the curriculum to assist trainees in becoming safe, effective and independent surgeons.