Factors Affecting Mental Models in CD-ROM Searching : A Preliminary Investigation

This article attempts to investigate possible factors affecting mental models in CD-ROM searching. The subjects were college and graduate students of National Taiwan University. They used PsyLIT CD-ROM database to search their own questions. After instructions, 52 subjects did 58 searchers. According to search terms selections, four types of mental models were identified. This article discussed possible factors that influences the above four types of mental models, including subject characteristics, search results and questions.