In the reported study it was investigated whether deictic tracing during processing multimedia materials can support learning. Participants in the tracing group had to connect words in the text to corresponding elements in the picture by tracing with their index finger on a tablet surface. Participants in the tracing group were expected to outperform learners in the control group without tracing regarding text-picture integration performance and pure picture recall. Results did not confirm our assumptions. Instead, learners in the tracing group performed even worse regarding text-picture integration performance and drawing performance (i.e., replicating the to-be-learned picture) compared to the control group. Log-file analyses showed that only few learners were able to trace the lines correctly on all slides, so tracing difficulty may explain the unexpected results. Other possible reasons as well as the implications of these results are discussed.

在报告的研究中，调查了处理多媒体材料过程中的指示跟踪是否可以支持学习。追踪组的参与者必须通过用食指在平板电脑表面进行追踪，将文本中的单词与图片中的相应元素联系起来。跟踪组的参与者在没有跟踪文本-图片整合性能和纯图片回忆的情况下，预计会优于对照组的学习者。结果并未证实我们的假设。相反，与对照组相比，跟踪组的学习者在文本-图片整合性能和绘图性能（即复制待学习图片）方面的表现甚至更差。日志文件分析表明，只有少数学习者能够正确追踪所有幻灯片上的线条，所以追踪困难可以解释意外的结果。讨论了其他可能的原因以及这些结果的含义。