What was I looking for? The influence of task specificity and prior knowledge on students' search strategies in hypertext

摘要

This study investigated the influence of task specificity and prior knowledge on university students' search strategies and incidental learning of a hypertext structure. Psychology and geography students were asked to search a hierarchical hypertext from each domain in order to answer four content-related questions. Question specificity (single vs. multiple target questions) was manipulated. Search time and search patterns showed a limited influence of discipline expertise on students' search strategies. However, strategies were consistent within question types and participants. Moreover, participants had a better incidental memory for the structure of the document in their specialty. The results support a model of document search as a generalized process with a limited influence of domain-related knowledge.