Does content affect whether users remember that web pages were hyperlinked?
Jones, Keith S. Ballew, Timothy V. Probst, C. Adam
Jones, Keith S.
Ballew, Timothy V.
Probst, C. Adam
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2008-10-01
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Keywords
Experiments,Websites,World Wide Web,Hyper Links,Local Architectures,Mental Representations,Web Pages,Hypertext Systems,Accuracy,Adult,Article,Computer Graphics,Computer Interface,Content Analysis,Female,Human,Human Computer Interaction,Human Experiment,Information Processing,Knowledge,Male,Memory Consolidation,Online System,Recall,Web Browser,Adolescent,Adult,Association Learning,Female,Humans,Internet,Male,Mental Recall,User-computer Interface,Young adult
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Citation
Jones, K. S., Ballew, T. V., & Probst, C. A. (2008). Does Content Affect Whether Users Remember that Web Pages were Hyperlinked? Human Factors, 50(5), 763-771. https://doi.org/10.1518/001872008X354147 (Original work published 2008)
Abstract
Objective: We determined whether memory for hyperlinks improved when they repsented relations between the contents of the Web pages. Background: J. S. Farris (2003) found that memory for hyperlinks improved when they represented relations between the contents of the Web pages. However, Farris's (2003) participants could have used their knowledge of site content to answer questions about relations that were instantiated via the site's content and its hyperlinks. Method: In Experiment 1, users navigated a Web site and then answered questions about relations that were instantiated only via content, only via hyperlinks, and via content and hyperlinks. Unlike Farris (2003), we split the latter into two sets. One asked whether certain content elements were related, and the other asked whether certain Web pages were hyperlinked. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 with one modification: The questions that were asked about relations instantiated via content and hyperlinks were changed so that each question's wrong answer was also related to the question's target. Results: Memory for hyperlinks improved when they represented relations instantiated within the content of the Web pages. This was true when (a) questions about content and hyperlinks were separated (Experiment 1) and (b) each question's wrong answer was also related to the question's target (Experiment 2). Conclusion: The accuracy of users' mental representations of local architecture depended on whether hyperlinks were related to the site's content. Application: Designers who want users to remember hyperlinks should associate those hyperlinks with content that reflects the relation between the contents on the Web pages. Copyright © 2008, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. © 2009 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.; MEDLINE® is the source for the MeSH terms of this document.
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This is an open access article under the CC by license.
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SAGE Publications
Journal
Human Factors
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0018-7208
1547-8181
1547-8181