Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cognitive load involved in searching hierarchical menus on a computer display by eyeblinks as an index. The participants were given the task of searching WWW pages created for the experimental purposes according to a predetermined order. Two experimental conditions were prepared. One condition required participants to self select a location to follow, while the other simply required the participants to click on the “NEXT” icon. The results indicate that there were no differences between the two conditions. Eyeblinks were suppressed, however, when menu items were selected and this was followed by a burst of eyeblink. This phenomenon would seem to be related to cognitive load. The eyeblinking indicates that there are cognitive loads involved in sequential searching of hierarchical menus.
