Fuzzy cognitive map and people's web behavior

The vast majority of college students have been reared as researchers in an environment where boundaries for information have been clearly marked, i.e., that of books and paper text. How do students learn to surf on the unbounded space of hyperlinks or the World Wide Web (WWW)? No other studies have proposed a fuzzy cognitive map of a user's behavior on the web. In this study, a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) is implemented and discussed. It represents the opinions of experts on how users surf the web under time constraints. Experts are divided on what causes users to fail their queries on the web or what keep them in being successful regardless of the domain or the task at hand but with limited time on hand to answer the query. It shows an FCM model can be developed and some limit-cycle equilibria are uncovered. A FCM limit cycle repeats a sequence of events and actions. Limit cycles can reveal cognitive and behavioral patterns of users on the web. An adaptive FCM is built around correlation encoding and differential Hebbian learning to reflect the map behavior under time constraints. The dynamics of the adaptive hebbian learning FCM built show for the first time that users that are search oriented and unsuccessful can learn to become successful even under time constraints. Also, the dynamics of the adaptive hebbian learning FCM built show for the first time, since no other studies have shown that, that users that are browse oriented and unsuccessful can learn to become successful even under time constraints. The FCM build shows how successful users can stay successful with new uncovered rules on learning. The behavior of the FCM can also get stuck in a minimum and chaotic behavior is detected. Few FCMs in the literature have shown such an erratic behavior.