Hypertext/media and Human Memory
Humans associate pieces of information along with other information and make complicated knowledge structures. Thus, this is also said as the human memory is associative.
We frequently remember information through association. For illustration, a person starts with a concept that reminds of a related idea or an idea that in turn reminds him or her of other idea. The order in that a human relates an idea along with other idea based on the context under that the person needs information.
During writing an author converts his or her knowledge that exists as a complicated knowledge structure in an external representation. Information can be presented merely in a linear manner by using physical media as printed material and video tapes. Thus, the author has to convert his or her knowledge in a linear representation using a linearization method. This is not simple so the author will give additional information, as a table of contents and an index, to assist the reader understand the overall organization information.
The reading method can be viewed like a transformation of external information in an internal knowledge base combined along with integration in existing knowledge structures; essentially a reverse operation of the writing method. For this, the reader breaks the information in smaller pieces and again arranges those depend on the readers' information needs. We rarely read a text book or a scientific paper from begin to end. We tend to browse by the information and then obey the information headings which are interesting to us.
Hypermedia, by using computer enabled links, permits us to partially imitate writing and reading methods as they take place within our brain. We can make non-linear information structures through relating pieces of information in various ways using links. Additionally, we can utilize a combination of media including of text, images, sound, video and animation for value adding in the presentation of information. This is not essential for an author to go by a linearization process of his or her knowledge while writing. Also, the reader can access several of the information structures the author had when writing the information. It will assist the reader create his or her own representation of information and to amalgamate that knowledge in the existing information structures.
In addition to being capable to access information by association, hypermedia applications are supported through a number of additional aspects. These comprise a capability to incorporate different media, interactivity, huge data sources and distributed data sources as well as powerful search engines. All such make hypermedia a very powerful tool to make, store, access and manipulate information.