Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

The present study aimed to develop effective education methods of online search for unskilled college students. Inthe preparatory stage of the study, an experiment using simple browsing tasks was conducted to examine the effects of importantfactors of searching focusing on cognitive load. Under two conditions (Casual and Formal) promoting different motivations,search result lists were displayed to fifty-nine college students to look for two types of information: seeking statistical data (taskA) and seeking views and opinions to answer open questions (task B). Analyses of each task using two factors (the conditionsand their presentation orders) revealed that in task A, only when the Casual condition was first, the participants performedbetter in the Formal condition. In task B, only when the Formal condition was first, browsing time in the Casual condition wasshorter. We assume that these effects are associated with the workload of browsing.