Abstract
A central issue in learning from hypertext is the nonlinearity of presenting information. Nonlinearity, however, does not have a facultative effect on learning per se. The essential point is rather how learners make use of this nonlinearity, that is, how they interact with hypertexts, which strategies they use, and what kind of knowledge they construct. This chapter is concerned with differences between successful and unsuccessful strategies in learning about a complex subject matter from hypertext. In an empirical study, subjects had to answer a series of questions with the help of a hypertext. Cognitive processing was analyzed through the think-aloud method. A group of successful learners and a group of unsuccessful learners were identified by their scores in a comprehension test presented after learning. The results indicated that the two groups used different strategies, which were reflected by different patterns of information access. The successful learners tried to construct a mental model of the subject domain, which was then successively elaborated. They combined model construction, model analysis, and symbol processing in a flexible way, and tried to solve inconsistencies by elaborating the respective model structure. In contrast, unsuccessful learners tried to get by with a symbol processing strategy and tackled the construction of a mental model only when the former strategy could no longer be applied. Inconsistencies were solved by ad hoc repairs of procedures rather than by systematic elaboration of the model structure. The respective strategies can be related to a global and a local orientation of knowledge acquisition. Instructional implications for the selecting and sequencing of learning tasks, as well as for the display of information in the design of learning environments with hypertext, are pointed out.
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Schnotz, W. (1997). Strategy-Specific Information Access in Knowledge Acquisition from Hypertext. In: Resnick, L.B., Säljö, R., Pontecorvo, C., Burge, B. (eds) Discourse, Tools and Reasoning. NATO ASI Series, vol 160. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03362-3_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03362-3_15
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