Modeling Semantic and Structural Knowledge in Web Navigation

• Published in: Discourse processes Vol. 45; no. 4-5; pp. 346 - 364
• Main Authors: Juvina, Ion, van Oostendorp, Herre
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Taylor & Francis Group 01.07.2008; Routledge; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Cognitive models; Cognitive Processes; Computer System Design; Cues; Foreign Countries; Graduate Students; Internet; Knowledge; Mathematics; Navigation; Netherlands; Regression (Statistics); Searches; Semantics; Spatial Ability; Task Analysis; Undergraduate Students; Web Sites; Netherlands
• ISSN: 0163-853X; 1532-6950
• DOI: 10.1080/01638530802145205

Research on cognitive modeling of information search and Web navigation emphasizes the importance of "information scent" (the relevance of semantic cues such as link labels and headings to a reader's goal; Pirolli & Card, 1999 ). This article shows that not only semantic but also structural knowledge is involved in navigating the Web ( Juvina, 2006 ). This article argues for considering both semantic and structural knowledge in modelling Web navigation. A cognitive model is proposed that uses information scent to account for user's judgments of relevance (a semantic dimension) and "path adequacy" (the semantic similarity between a navigation path and a user's goal) to account for user's efficiency in traversing a Web structure (a structural dimension). Two empirical studies show that abilities to represent and manipulate spatial structures are complementary to semantic abilities in accounting for Web navigation performance.