This article introduces a bibliographic study on the contributions of cognitive psychology to the development of instructional design, or designe pédagogique, as it is known in French. The study originates in a doctorate thesis in the North American context, one of the goals of which was to analyze the development of instructional designs and their influence on the conception of learning environments for teacher education, bearing in mind that this field originated in research carried out by behavioral psychologists. Currently, research into proposals for teacher education in North America is moving towards a socio-constructivist approach. As stated in the article, it has been a major challenge for planners of teaching and learning environments to deal with the approaches of cognitive psychology, and ensure that instructional design keeps up with this development.