Cognitive load theory’s incorporation of evolutionary perspectives has generated several instructional designs based on movement, including the tracing effect, occurring when learners benefit from explicit instructions to trace out specific elements of lesson materials with the index finger. Historical descriptions of children’s tracing behaviours while learning with Montessori’s “sandpaper letters” suggest some children would sequence their own learning with sandpaper letters by first tracing the lesson materials with eyes open, then with eyes closed. This description resonates with another cognitive load theory effect — the imagination effect — whereby students with sufficient prior knowledge benefit from imagining rather than studying lesson materials. Across two experiments, we replicated and extended the tracing effect by comparing a no-tracing control condition and a tracing condition to a condition where students traced elements of worked examples initially with eyes open, then with eyes closed. The majority of hypotheses were confirmed via effects on self-reported intrinsic motivation, cognitive load, and/or problem-solving test performance. We conclude with considerations for instructional designers, educators, and researchers.

认知负荷理论结合进化观点已经产生了几种基于运动的教学设计，包括追踪效应，当学习者受益于明确的指令以用食指追踪课程材料的特定元素时，就会发生这种情况。儿童在使用蒙台梭利“砂纸字母”学习时的追踪行为的历史描述表明，一些孩子会用砂纸字母对自己的学习进行排序，首先睁眼追踪课程材料，然后闭上眼睛。这种描述与另一种认知负荷理论效应——想象力效应——产生共鸣，即具有足够先验知识的学生从想象而不是学习课程材料中受益。在两次实验中，我们通过将无跟踪控制条件和跟踪条件与学生最初睁眼然后闭眼跟踪工作示例元素的条件进行比较，复制和扩展了跟踪效果。大多数假设通过对自我报告的内在动机、认知负荷和/或解决问题的测试表现的影响得到证实。我们总结了对教学设计者、教育者和研究人员的考虑。