{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/22250"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/22250","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"A study of hypertext document structure and individual differences: Effects on learning performance","abstract":"This study is an attempt to find out the effects of hypertext document design as well as individual differences on users' attitude and information searching performance. The interaction effects between structure of hypertext documents and individual difference variables were examined. The three types of combinations of structure and menu design were: (a) hierarchical structure signaled by explicit menus and referential links presented by embedded menus (program 1-HXRM), (b) hierarchical structure signaled by embedded menus and referential links presented by embedded menus (program 2-HMRM), and (c) referential links presented by embedded menus without structural information (program 3-RM). The two individual difference variables were: (a) cognitive style: field-dependence versus field-independence, and (b) epistemic beliefs and preferences: simple versus complex.","abstract_html":"This study is an attempt to find out the effects of hypertext document design as well as individual differences on users' attitude and information searching performance. The interaction effects between structure of hypertext documents and individual difference variables were examined. The three types of combinations of structure and menu design were: (a) hierarchical structure signaled by explicit menus and referential links presented by embedded menus (program 1-HXRM), (b) hierarchical structure signaled by embedded menus and referential links presented by embedded menus (program 2-HMRM), and (c) referential links presented by embedded menus without structural information (program 3-RM). The two individual difference variables were: (a) cognitive style: field-dependence versus field-independence, and (b) epistemic beliefs and preferences: simple versus complex.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Chang, Ching-Tao"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Education","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Waugh, Michael L."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-07T13:33:54Z","date_published":"2011-05-07T13:33:54Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:19Z","subjects":["Education, Technology of","Education, Curriculum and Instruction"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Copyright 1995 Chang, Ching-Tao"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9624305","(UMI)AAI9624305"],"render_values":[{"text":"AAI9624305","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"(UMI)AAI9624305","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/22250","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Waugh, Michael L."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Chang, Ching-Tao"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2011-05-07T13:33:54Z","10000-01-01","1995"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Education"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Education, Technology of","Education, Curriculum and Instruction"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 1995 Chang, Ching-Tao"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9624305","(UMI)AAI9624305","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/22250"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This study is an attempt to find out the effects of hypertext document design as well as individual differences on users' attitude and information searching performance. The interaction effects between structure of hypertext documents and individual difference variables were examined. The three types of combinations of structure and menu design were: (a) hierarchical structure signaled by explicit menus and referential links presented by embedded menus (program 1-HXRM), (b) hierarchical structure signaled by embedded menus and referential links presented by embedded menus (program 2-HMRM), and (c) referential links presented by embedded menus without structural information (program 3-RM). The two individual difference variables were: (a) cognitive style: field-dependence versus field-independence, and (b) epistemic beliefs and preferences: simple versus complex.","This study employed a $3\\times2$ completely randomized factorial design. The same design was applied to the two individual difference variables separately. Fifty-two students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participated in this experiment.","The findings of this study led to the following general conclusions: (1) Cognitive style was found to be an influential factor on users' information searching performances. Field-independent users scored significantly higher than field-dependent users on information searching tasks. Field-independent users especially had advantages over field-dependent users when structural information was not conveyed through interface design in program 3. (2) Users' beliefs about whether knowledge is simple or complex, compartmentalizable or interconnected did not seem to affect their information searching performances in a hypertext environment in this study. (3) Program 1-HXRM (hierarchical links-explicit menus; referential links-embedded menus) produced the most efficient searching with respect to less cards searched, but did not necessarily produce the best search scores. (4) Program 2-HMRM may be a compromise between explicit menus and embedded menus. By clearly signaling hierarchical links without extracting the menu items out of the context, this design may preserve the advantages of both explicit menus and embedded menus. (5) When given a choice between non-linear hypertext and linear links, most novice subjects given simple search tasks chose linear links.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:33:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9624305.pdf: 6832403 bytes, checksum: a500b820a01f6f9345042692235c3a54 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1995","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:56:20Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:26:20-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["A study of hypertext document structure and individual differences: Effects on learning performance"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Waugh, Michael L."],"dc:creator":["Chang, Ching-Tao"],"dc:date":["2011-05-07T13:33:54Z","10000-01-01","1995"],"dc:description":["This study is an attempt to find out the effects of hypertext document design as well as individual differences on users' attitude and information searching performance. The interaction effects between structure of hypertext documents and individual difference variables were examined. The three types of combinations of structure and menu design were: (a) hierarchical structure signaled by explicit menus and referential links presented by embedded menus (program 1-HXRM), (b) hierarchical structure signaled by embedded menus and referential links presented by embedded menus (program 2-HMRM), and (c) referential links presented by embedded menus without structural information (program 3-RM). The two individual difference variables were: (a) cognitive style: field-dependence versus field-independence, and (b) epistemic beliefs and preferences: simple versus complex.","This study employed a $3\\times2$ completely randomized factorial design. The same design was applied to the two individual difference variables separately. Fifty-two students from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign participated in this experiment.","The findings of this study led to the following general conclusions: (1) Cognitive style was found to be an influential factor on users' information searching performances. Field-independent users scored significantly higher than field-dependent users on information searching tasks. Field-independent users especially had advantages over field-dependent users when structural information was not conveyed through interface design in program 3. (2) Users' beliefs about whether knowledge is simple or complex, compartmentalizable or interconnected did not seem to affect their information searching performances in a hypertext environment in this study. (3) Program 1-HXRM (hierarchical links-explicit menus; referential links-embedded menus) produced the most efficient searching with respect to less cards searched, but did not necessarily produce the best search scores. (4) Program 2-HMRM may be a compromise between explicit menus and embedded menus. By clearly signaling hierarchical links without extracting the menu items out of the context, this design may preserve the advantages of both explicit menus and embedded menus. (5) When given a choice between non-linear hypertext and linear links, most novice subjects given simple search tasks chose linear links.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T13:33:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9624305.pdf: 6832403 bytes, checksum: a500b820a01f6f9345042692235c3a54 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1995","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:56:20Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:26:20-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"],"dc:identifier":["AAI9624305","(UMI)AAI9624305","http://hdl.handle.net/2142/22250"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 1995 Chang, Ching-Tao"],"dc:subject":["Education, Technology of","Education, Curriculum and Instruction"],"dc:title":["A study of hypertext document structure and individual differences: Effects on learning performance"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Education"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:19Z"}