Learners frequently access multiple, illustrated texts on a single topic, but this kind of multi-text, multi-modal comprehension has been rarely studied. Undergraduates were presented with two sets of biology materials on shared topics, including both texts and captioned illustrations. Process data, including think-alouds and screen recordings of participants' attendance to different foci, were recorded. Both intra-textual (e.g., T1, T1) and inter-textual (e.g., T1, T2) navigation sequences and switches from texts to diagrams (e.g, T1, D1) were recorded and examined in relation to comprehension performance. Patterns in participants’ navigation across texts and illustrations were identified. Students who were higher-performing in the sample exhibited more intra-textual switches, suggestive of forming a page-specific mental model. For one text, inter-textual text-to-diagram switches were negatively associated with high-level strategies, and thus negatively associated with performance; inter-textual text-to-diagram switches might have indicated confusion. Participants appeared to be in the early stages of learning a complex set of MTMM comprehension skills.

学习者经常在一个主题上访问多个带插图的文本，但是很少研究这种多文本，多模式的理解。为学生提供了两套有关共享主题的生物学材料，包括文本和带插图的插图。记录了过程数据，包括思考方式和参与者参加不同焦点的屏幕记录。文本内（例如，T1，T1）和文本间（例如，T1，T2）导航序列以及从文本到图表的切换（例如，T1，D1）都被记录下来，并与理解性能进行了比较。确定了参与者在文本和插图之间导航的模式。在样本中表现较高的学生表现出更多的文本内转换，暗示着形成了特定页面的心理模型。对于一个文本，文本间文本到图表的切换与高级策略负相关，因此与性能负相关；文本间的文本到图表的切换可能表明存在混淆。参与者似乎处于学习一套复杂的MTMM理解技能的早期阶段。