Effects of semantically structured hypertextual knowledge bases on user knowledge structures

Abstract

Some hypertext researchers and designers believe that hypertext information structures should reflect the structures of human memory and that by empirically deriving and then mapping the semantic structure of information onto hypertext and explicitly illustrating that structure in the hypertext interface will result in greater changes in the knowledge structures of the users (Jonassen, 1990, 1991b; Lambiotte et al., 1989; McAleese, 1990; McDonald, Paap and McDonald, 1990). This chapter introduces techniques for ascertaining an expert’s knowledge structure and mapping it onto hypertext. It then reviews the results of an ongoing series of studies that test these ideas. The studies show that merely illustrating content structures in the interface is not sufficient for helping learners acquire that structure. Rather, it is the nature of the processing task and goals for learning whilst interacting with a hypertext that determines the effects of its use on learners’ knowledge structures.