Open AccessInvestigating the relationship between task complexity, cognitive ability and disorientation in hypertext navigation
Author(s) -
Alper Bayazıt,
Servet Bayram,
Gonca Kızılkaya Cumaoğlu
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
world journal on educational technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1309-0348
pISSN - 1309-1506
DOI - 10.18844/wjet.v10i4.4088
Subject(s) - task (project management) , cognition , hypertext , computer science , hypermedia , psychology , human–computer interaction , feeling , cognitive psychology , multimedia , world wide web , social psychology , engineering , systems engineering , neuroscience
Users sometimes face a common and serious problem called disorientation, which is defined as the feeling of being lost in a web-based environment. It is important to determine the reasons for disorientation in order to make the students navigate more efficiently in these environments. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between navigation patterns, disorientation level and students’ cognitive ability. For this purpose, an experimental research was designed and a 223-page Wiki environment was developed as a network structured hypertext environment. Sixty-nine university students’ navigation processes including 6.880-row log data were recorded in order to measure their disorientation scores. We found that task complexity negatively affected disorientation scores. Disorientation scores decreased as the tasks became more difficult. Possible causes of the results are discussed. Keywords: Disorientation, cognitive ability, hypermedia navigation, task complexity.