Cognitive styles and the use of electronic journals in a mobile context

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine how different cognitive style groups use electronic journals via mobile devices, with an emphasis on the use of search mechanisms, the approaches to judge the relevance and to refine the results, the use of horizontal screens, and on the influence of negative emotions. Design/methodology/approach -Participants' cognitive styles were identified as Holists and Serialists with Ford's Study Preference Questionnaire. The behaviour of the participants interacting with the ScienceDirect was observed and was analysed with both traditional statistics and data mining. Findings -Holists prefer to use multiple searches when undertaking the Expert Search only, which is a complex search mechanism. Conversely, Serialists have a tendency to use multiple searches, irrespective of the complexity of search mechanisms. Additionally, the Expert Search may be helpful for Serialists while the Basic Search seems beneficial to Holists. Regarding the judgement of relevance, Holists tend to use a variety of approaches while Serialists prefer to use a single approach. In general, the major results of this study confirm those of Vilar and Ž umer (2008). Originality/value -The novelty of this study covers two aspects. One is to examine the behaviour of Holists and Serialists in the mobile context of electronic journals and the other is to analyse data with an integrative approach that combines both traditional statistics and data mining. The former contributes to the understandings of how to design mobile electronic journals that can accommodate the needs of different cognitive style groups. The latter can not only strengthen the reliability of the results obtained from traditional statistics, but also discover findings neglected by traditional statistics.

The interplay between humans, technology and user authentication: A cognitive processing perspective

“…Specifically, research findings have correlated field dependence-independence with Baddeley's visuospatial sketchpad and central executive system [Baddeley, 1992;2012], since viewing shapes is primarily a visuospatial function, and the cognitive ability of extracting embedded shapes out of a complex whole involves the use of central executive functions, such as monitoring [Angeli et al, 2009]. Furthermore, a considerable number of studies confirmed that field dependence-independence affects search and browsing behavior of users in interactive systems [Chan et al, 2014;Kinley et al, 2014;Belk et al, 2013;Chen and Liu, 2008;Clewley et al, 2011;2010], problem solving performance in educational and hypermedia environments [Angeli et al, 2004;2013], gaming performance and behavior in cultural heritage games [Raptis et al, 2016], and digital-based puzzle problems [Hong et al, 2012].…”

“…Such methods would increase user acceptance of the approach since the field dependence-independence characteristics could be transparently elicited based on the users' interactions with the system, without requiring to conduct any additional psychometric tests that would add a burden to the users. Accordingly, the users' field dependence-independence characteristics could be implicitly inferred by tracking their behavior with navigation tools [Chen and Liu, 2008], or based on the usage of search tools [Chan et al, 2014].…”

A Human Cognitive Processing Perspective in Designing E-Commerce Checkout Processes

“…The Wholist/Analyst cognitive style distinguishes individuals as Wholists that prefer and tend to structure incoming information as a whole to get the big picture, and experience surroundings of the environment in a relative passive and global manner, or as Analysts that prefer and tend to structure the incoming info rmation in detail, and experience surroundings in an active manner and with an internal perspe ctive. A high number of studies which investigated the effect of cognitive styles on users' task usability and interaction patterns within Web environments, revealed implications of cognitive styles on users' performance and preferred ways of using different navigation tools and display options [13,14,15]. On the contrary, various studies concluded that cognitive styles do not have a main effect on users' task performance and preference within hypermedia environments [16].…”

Do human cognitive differences in information processing affect preference and performance of CAPTCHA?

“…Such methods would increase user acceptance of the approach since the cognitive characteristics could be transparently elicited based on the users' interactions with the system, without requiring to conduct any additional psychometric tests that would add a burden to the users. Accordingly, the users' cognitive characteristics could be implicitly inferred by tracking their navigation sequence in particular sections of the system (Belk et al, 2013), by tracking their behavior with navigation tools (hierarchical maps or alphabetical index) (Chen and Liu, 2008), or based on the usage of search tools (basic or advanced search) (Chan et al, 2014).…”