Do spatial abilities have an impact on route learning in hypertexts?

Abstract

Metaphors of navigation have been widely used to describe the behaviour of users surfing the World Wide Web. We present the results of a web-based experiment (N= 85 participants) on route learning in Wikipedia. As spatial abilities and sense of direction are known to be important for real-world wayfinding abilities, we examine the extent to which the participants are able to retrace a learned route on their own and the time taken to do this can be predicted using these variables. The tested (G)LMM models, however, show a lower than expected relevance of spatial abilities and sense of direction. The results suggest that both personal factors (such as age and gender) and task are important for the duration of tasks.