The influence of surface and deep cues on primary and secondary school students' assessment of relevance in Web menus

Two experiments investigated primary and secondary school students' Web menu selection strategies using simulated Web search tasks. It was hypothesized that students' selections of websites depend on their perception and integration of multiple relevance cues. More specifically, students should be able to disentangle superficial cues (e.g., keywords and typographical emphasis) from deep semantic cues. Experiment 1 found that 5th and 7th graders' selections were strongly influenced by superficial relevance cues. The influence of superficial cues decreased in 9th and 12th graders. Experiment 2 examined the influence of prior elaboration of the search topic on 5th and 7th graders' website selection. Reading a short text about the search topic prior to selecting websites increased good readers' selection of relevant websites. Poor readers' selection performance was lower and unaffected by the task context manipulation. The results are discussed in terms of students' acquisition of flexible reading skills that include an awareness of the contextual demands. Implications for the use of Web-based tasks in instructional settings are considered.