Knowledge, Interest, Recall and Navigation: A Look at Hypertext Processing

This study examines how knowledge and interest affect recall of information from a hypertext environment. Participants were 34 undergraduates enrolled at a college of education in a large western university. Results indicate that domain knowledge significantly predicted both structured and unstructured reading recall of a hypertext. In contrast to patterns found within research on traditional reading environments, interest did not significantly affect recall of hypertext information. Differential navigation patterns emerged in conjunction with varying levels of knowledge and may help to explain these results. The results are discussed in terms of current schema theoretic models of reading comprehension.