An Experimental Analysis of Experiential and Cognitive Variables in Web Navigation

Paul van Schaik is a psychologist with an interest in human-computer interaction, and cognitive psychology; he is a Professor of Psychology in the School of Social Sciences and Law at Teesside University. Jonathan Ling is a psychologist with an interest in human-computer interaction, cognitive performance and perception; he is a research fellow in the Abstract Cognitive and experiential factors in human-computer interaction have been the focus of significant recent attention, but there is a lack of a much needed integrated approach to these issues. The current paper proposes such an approach and applies this, combined with the person-task-artefact model (Finneran & Zhang, 2003), to the modelling of web navigation. In an experiment, artefact complexity and task complexity were manipulated. The effects of the experimental manipulations and intrinsic motivation on flow experience, task performance and task outcome were tested. The main effects of the manipulations were confirmed. Further analyses demonstrated that flow was a mediator of the effect of experimental manipulations on task performance, and task performance was a mediator of the effect of flow on task outcome. Overall, the results in the domain of web navigation that are presented here demonstrate the need for taking an integrated cognitive-experiential approach in the modelling of human-computer interaction.