Cognitive Styles and Software Agents for Student Information Management of Web-based Resources

The combination of prior knowledge of an individual’s cognitive style with the technical solutions offered by adaptive and intelligent interfaces suggest a possible way forward with respect to the problems of information overload. This paper looks at the relevance of cognitive styles to human computer interaction and interface design. It does this in the context of the use of adaptive interfaces and software agents for accessing information from the Internet and World Wide Web. The application of a particular view of cognitive styles to information handling and interface design is also considered. Adaptive interfaces and Internet agents are looked at in relation to moving towards more individual designs for interacting with the Net and Web. A review of each of these areas is undertaken and an attempt is then made to draw these themes together to produce a prototype student information manager.