THE PROBLEM OF CONSTRUCTING COGNITIVE MAPS BY INTERNET USERS

Abstract

The article covers the problems associated with the internet users' inability to create an effective cognitive map. Hypertext, compared to traditional information retrieval systems, has the advantage of fast access to information and flexible choice of the access means. Yet, one cannot be sure that the user will manage to design his route correctly and reach the needed info; he can reach the cognitive disorientation instead. Suggestion is made that the main reason for these particular difficulties is a multilayer structure of the hypertext, its non-spatial and non-linear character, as well as construction of variation  links on the basis of not user's, but software developer's semantics. So, the system of the internal structuring of the environment does not work, and the individual is unable to map effectively.

Keywords: cognitive map, hypertext, space, Internet, space metaphor.

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