ABSTRACT
While the impact of behavioural and cognitive processes on online information searching behaviours have been studied in some depth, little is known about the impact of procedural and metacognitive processes on online information searching behaviours. In addition, although the literature contains studies examining online information searching behaviours based on experience, cognitive styles, and task complexity separately, there is only a limited number of studies that investigate how online information searching behaviours vary depending on individual characteristics by taking task complexity as a basis. The aim of this study is to explore whether university students’ information searching behaviours, task completion times, and task completion rates in simple and difficult tasks differ depending on information searching experience and cognitive style. The study was conducted with a sample of 20 university students. The results of this study indicated that in difficult search tasks, online information searching experience is influential on the exhibition of online information searching behaviours associated with the metacognitive domain. In simple and difficult tasks, experience and cognitive styles cause differentiation in online information searching behaviours. When task complexity is taken as a basis, the experience is more influential on task completion time and task completion rate compared to cognitive styles.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
İlknur Reisoğlu
Dr İlknur Reisoğlu is an assistant professor at the department of Computer Education & Instructional Technology, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan University, Turkey. She received her PhD in Computer Education & Instructional Technology from Atatürk University, Turkey. Her research interests include information seeking and 3D virtual worlds.
Ayça Çebi
Dr Ayça Çebi is a research assistant at the Department of Computer Education & Instructional Technology, Trabzon University, Turkey. She received her PhD in Computer Education & Instructional Technology from Gazi University, Turkey. Her research interests include adaptive systems, data mining, and educational technology.
Tuğba Bahçekapılı
Tuğba Bahçekapılı is a research assistant at the Department of Computer Education & Instructional Technology, Trabzon University, Turkey. She is doing her doctorate at the Computer Education & Instructional Technology program at Middle East Technical University. Her research interests are technology and teacher education, technology integration, technological leadership and mentoring, and innovative use of technology in k-12 classrooms.