Which technique is specifically used to manage cognitive load by guiding attention and highlighting structure in instructional materials?

• A. Chunk content
• B. Signaling
• C. Segment complex tasks
• D. Guided practice

Answer: (B)

Signaling is a technique that reduces cognitive load by guiding learners' attention and highlighting the structure of the material. In practice, it uses cues such as headings, subheadings, bold or color for key terms, arrows, and deliberate spacing to show what’s important and how ideas are related. This helps learners know what to focus on next and see the overall organization, so working memory isn’t taxed trying to locate essential points or infer relationships. While other approaches like chunking group related information, segmenting breaks a task into steps, and guided practice provides support during performance, they don’t specifically direct attention within the presentation and reveal its structure as clearly as signaling does.