About "Cognitive load being rarely considered", I meant it in actual project work, not in the sense that the idea of applying cognitive psychology to programming is new.

I am sure the topic has been considered in an academic setting. I would not feel qualified to provide a good reading list on the topic.

This is also related to code quality, thus it will have a ton of relevant work.

Thank you for the links, in particular to Skelton, Pais, I will have a look!