To support transfer of learning, instruction should minimize extraneous load and promote encoding that supports durable knowledge. Which practice best aligns with this?

• A. Remove irrelevant visuals, chunk tasks, and connect new ideas to prior knowledge.
• B. Add many animations, increase task complexity without guidance, and use isolated facts.
• C. Load extraneous materials to increase engagement with irrelevant content.
• D. Present new material without linking to prior knowledge.

Answer: (B)

Focus on reducing extraneous cognitive load to help encoding become durable and transferable. The best practice is to remove irrelevant visuals, chunk tasks into manageable steps, and connect new ideas to what learners already know. This helps learners form coherent schemas in long-term memory, so they can apply the knowledge flexibly in new situations. In contrast, introducing many animations, increasing task complexity without guided support, and presenting isolated facts raise extraneous load and hinder encoding, making transfer harder. Similarly, presenting new material without linking it to prior knowledge deprives learners of a scaffold for integration, and including extraneous materials just competes for cognitive resources. So, removing distractions, organizing content into chunks, and tying new ideas to prior knowledge best supports durable encoding and transfer.