Working Memory and Learning Underlying Website Structure

Abstract

A common usage of the world-wide-web is to seek out and gather important information for a specific learning goal. However, not all material is organized similarly, and assumed implicit conventions are often relied upon to guide users’ search behavior. However, when explicit cues to the conceptual structure of the material are missing or lacking, are different learners more or less sensitive to gathering this implicit information which may be relevant for the learning task? This study examines the performance of high and low working memory individuals as they are asked to learn about plants from a Wiki-like website. Results indicate that learning underlying conceptual structure is indeed predicted by working memory, but not prior knowledge. This suggests that individual characteristics should be considered when designing learning technologies in the future.