Changes in users' knowledge structures before and after Web search on a topic: Analysis using the concept map

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the changes in users' mental representations of a topic during their exploratory search on the Web. We use concept maps to compare the users' knowledge before and after a search. Participants are required to gather information on the Web as preparation for a regular feature of a magazine on environment and trip topics. They are divided into two scenario groups: divergent and convergent. The divergent scenario requires the gathering of Web pages for an entire series of articles in a regular feature while the convergent scenario requires the gathering of Web pages for a single article of a regular feature. A comparative analysis between the pre-and postsearch concept maps indicate that the participants in the divergent scenario change their knowledge widely while the participants in the convergent scenario change their knowledge deeply. The results also show that there were more nodes, links, and link labels in the trip topic than in the environmental topic.

How concept maps change if a user does search or not?

“…A comparative analysis of concept maps between pre-search and post-search maps indicated that users significantly changed their knowledge structures for a topic through an exploratory search. Saito et al [9,10] also confirmed the effects of scenarios on their search activities and knowledge structures. In their experiment, participants were required to gather information on the Web in preparation for a regular magazine feature.…”

“…These are based on the results of previous studies [3,10,9] • Hypothesis 1: A participant conducting the search condition task browses various web pages and acquires new information; thus, the concept maps drawn by the participants in the search condition task would change dynamically between pre-and post-tasks. Therefore, the number of lost and new nodes in the search condition task would be greater than that of lost and new nodes in the filler condition task.…”

“…However, previous studies [3,9,10] have only analyzed the changes of concept maps before and after searching. Therefore, these studies could not exclude the possibility of the influence of instructions or time-dependent changes.…”

Searching as learning: A systematization based on literature

“…Some studies in this genre, like Saito and colleagues [46] have analysed how participants’ conceptual structures changed when they searched documents for writing magazine articles on certain topics. The participants were asked to draw a conceptual map on the topic of search before and after a 15 min search.…”