Browsing while reading: effects

One of the key reasons that multimedia, and particularly hypertext systems, are gaining in importance is that they inspire hopes of optimizing learners’ processes of knowledge construction. The present study is concerned with the respective influence of individual learner variables (i.e. particularly domain-specific prior knowledge) on the use of different design attributes. Thirty-six university students worked through a hierarchically structured two-part hypertext about the psychology of memory under two experimental browsing conditions (reduced versus free browsing).