Where is it? Searching for information in a college textbook

A study in which college students searched for the location of answers to simple questions about the meaning of basic concepts and terms in a college-level textbook is reported. In addition, students completed a series of questionnaire items and rating scales designed to assess their judgments about the utility of different textbook features for finding information, the strategies used to search, and efficacy beliefs about searching for information and learning information in a textbook. It proved especially difficult to find information that is not specifically indexed in the book and for which there are no other obvious clues. Most subjects thought to use the book′s index, however, and successfully located information rather quickly if the information was indexed. Subjects also have a clear model of the features of textbooks which have different levels of utility for finding information.