This article explores the effects of undergraduate students' mental models of the Web on
their online searching behavior. Forty-four undergraduate students, mainly freshmen and
sophomores, participated in the study. Subjects' mental models of the Web were treated as
equally good styles and operationalized as drawings of their perceptions about the Web.
Four types of mental models of the Web were identified based on the drawings and the
associated descriptions: technical view, functional view, process view, and connection view …