The aim of this study was to examine the effects of structure and navigation aids on students' learning from hypertexts. Participants were 48 undergraduate students. Group 1 (N = 24) read 2 hypertexts (one network, one hierarchical) with high navigation support (a graphical overview, a coherent links list, and use of different colours for visited…

Hypertext comprehension often suffers from inadequate representation of the text's structure. Explication of the local paragraph macrostructure within each node might help to overcome this obstacle. As headings show several deficits, especially in digital text, marginalia are considered a promising alternative in signaling hypertext structure as…

This exploratory quasi-experimental investigation describes the influence of text signals on team visual map artifacts. In two course sections, four-member teams were given one of two print-based text passage versions on the course-related topic "Social influence in groups" downloaded from Wikipedia; this text had two paragraphs, each…

This study aims to investigate secondary school students' reading comprehension and navigation of networked hypertexts with and without a graphic overview compared to linear digital texts. Additionally, it was studied whether prior knowledge, vocabulary, verbal, and visual working memory moderated the relation between text design and…

Introduction: In contemporary information societies, reading digital text has become pervasive. One of the most distinctive features of digital texts is their internal connections via hyperlinks, resulting in non-linear hypertexts. Hypertext structure and previous knowledge affect navigation and comprehension of digital expository texts. From the…

The effects of epistemic beliefs and text structure on cognitive processes during comprehension of scientific texts were investigated. On-line processes were measured using think-aloud (Experiment 1) and reading time (Experiment 2) methodologies. Measures of off-line comprehension, prior knowledge and epistemic beliefs were obtained. Results…

This study compared linear text-based and non-linear hypertext-based instruction in a handheld computer regarding effects on two different levels of knowledge (declarative and structural knowledge) and learner motivation. Forty four participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: linear text, hierarchical hypertext,…

Previous work applying cognitive load theory has demonstrated the effect of various text/graphic/narration relations on learning using multimedia material. Other work has looked at how the degree of integration between the text and graphics influences their use. This study set out to look at how the degree of integration between text and graphics…

The present study examines how changes in the amount of on-screen text will influence student learning from a multimedia instructional unit on basic concepts of coordinate geometry. The relative effectiveness of two different versions (short-text and whole-text) of the instructional unit was examined for students who differed in terms of their…

The current electronic text format is inherent to the problem of text integration, or, alternatively, cohesion deficit, which greatly affects reading comprehension. The question remains as to whether well structured hypertext would enable L2 readers, particularly ESL readers, to overcome potential difficulties in integrating information and…