Cognitive rigor comes from asking students to interact with content and learning activities in a way that demands deep understanding while simultaneously expecting complex thinking processes.


Bloom's Taxonomy



Webb's Depth of Knowledge



Karin Hess's Cognitive Rigor matrix visually lays out the relationship between deep understanding (Depth of Knowledge) and complex thinking (Bloom's taxonomy).  A cognitive rigor matrix (CRM) is a particularly helpful reference when designing a performance task as it allows educators to ensure that the task is created specifically to reach a targeted level of rigor.  The version shown below highlights verbs attached to example content to illustrate various levels of rigor.  This version can be particularly helpful when working with teams that cross content areas.  Having common language and a quick reference tool can help facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration.  



When designing or validating a performance task, you may prefer to reference one of the matrices below.  They have been a tailored to each discipline:  

It is important to note that when designing a task to assess true mastery, the task should require learners to utilize the appropriate level of cognitive complexity. For example, it would be a waste of time for learners to complete an extended task that merely asked them to restate basic factual knowledge (i.e. a high school junior creating a timeline of historical events) rather than engaging in more complex application, analysis, and synthesis (i.e. a high school junior analyzing the cause and effect relationships between historical events using compelling evidence drawn from multiple sources). 

The overall learning and assessment experience needs to honor students' entry point into the work as well as the goal. As students work through the learning and assessment process, they should have the opportunity to engage with material at several levels of cognitive rigor.  Early exposure is often at lower levels of cognitive rigor and demands increase as students gain confidence with new skills.  


Cognitive Rigor vs. Cognitive Demand

Related to rigor, but slightly different, is cognitive demand.  The latter refers to the sum of all the cognitive activity that is required to complete a task.  Cognitive demand includes the processes involved in meeting rigor, but it also includes things like time management, planning and self-regulation.  When designing rigorous performance assessments, it can be helpful to plan for supporting the other cognitive activities.  Common strategies would be to provide students with templates, suggested schedules, or other planning documents, all of which can reduce the overall cognitive demand without decreasing the rigor of the task.  For digital assignments, making links to necessary resources easy to find allows students to spend time digging into the actual performance task instead of hunting through folders for a particular document.   The goal is to ensure that students are challenged by the cognitive rigor of the task itself without being bogged down by outside factors. 

Additional Resources: