Teach and/or support learning
How students learn, both generally and within their subject/disciplinary area(s)
Signaling (or cueing) refers to using visual or textual hints to direct students’ attention to key information. It includes things like colour coding, bold text, arrows, or even highlighting. These cues help students know what’s important and how ideas are connected. Signaling can make it easier for students to learn from videos, diagrams, and slides by reducing distractions.
Signaling significantly improves learning outcomes across a variety of multimedia environments. Schneider et al. (2018) found that adding visual or verbal cues to highlight important content leads to moderate improvements in retention (g+ = 0.53) and smaller, but still meaningful, gains in transfer (g+ = 0.33). Their analysis shows that signaling is especially effective when used to clarify content structure or direct attention to essential information.
Alpizar et al. (2020) reported a mean effect size of d = 0.38, with stronger effects in shorter interventions and when signaling was paired with visuals rather than text alone. The study found that text-based cues (e.g., bolding, underlining) had slightly smaller effects than pictorial cues like arrows or highlights.
Xie et al. (2017) focused on the effect of signaling on cognitive load and learning, reporting that cues lowered total cognitive load (d = -0.11) and improved retention (d = 0.27) and transfer (d = 0.34). These effects were stronger when learners had low prior knowledge, suggesting that novices benefit most from guided attention.
Richter et al. (2016) showed that signaling text-picture relationships improves learning outcomes, especially when students are asked to integrate complex visual and verbal information. Their results suggest that cueing supports coherence and helps bridge the gap between separate types of information.
Across all studies, signaling is more effective when:
Overall, signaling supports both surface-level recall and deeper understanding, especially when cues are thoughtfully designed and targeted to reduce distraction or overload.
This summary is based on four major meta-analyses. Schneider et al. (2018) analysed 103 studies with 12,201 participants. Alpizar et al. (2020) reviewed 29 experimental studies with 2,726 participants. Xie et al. (2017) explored cognitive load and performance in 32 studies. Richter et al. (2016) examined 27 studies focusing on text-picture integration with multimedia. These high-quality reviews used rigorous statistical techniques and coded for key moderators like prior knowledge and media type.
Alpizar, D., Adesope, O. O., & Wong, R. M. (2020). A meta-analysis of signaling principle in multimedia learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development, 68, 2095–2119. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-020-09748-7
Richter, J., Scheiter, K., & Eitel, A. (2016). Signaling text-picture relations in multimedia learning: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 17, 19–36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2015.12.003
Schneider, S., Beege, M., Nebel, S., & Rey, G. D. (2018). A meta-analysis of how signaling affects learning with media. Educational Research Review, 23, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.11.001
Xie, H., Wang, F., Hao, Y., Chen, J., An, J., Wang, Y., & Liu, H. (2017). The more total cognitive load is reduced by cues, the better retention and transfer of multimedia learning: A meta-analysis and two meta-regression analyses. PLOS ONE, 12(8), e0183884. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183884
