Missing Links in Middle School: Developing Use of Disciplinary Relatedness in Evaluating Internet Search Results

In the “digital native” generation, internet search engines are a commonly used source of information. However, adolescents may fail to recognize relevant search results when they are related in discipline to the search topic but lack other cues. Middle school students, high school students, and adults rated simulated search results for relevance to the search topic. The search results were designed to contrast deep discipline-based relationships with lexical similarity to the search topic. Results suggest that the ability to recognize disciplinary relatedness without supporting cues may continue to develop into high school. Despite frequent search engine usage, younger adolescents may require additional support to make the most of the information available to them.