Abstract: ［Purpose/Significance］This study aims to explore whether college students have unique search characteristics and learning outcome when they perform the tasks of health information search at different cognitive levels.［Design/Methodology］Methods of experiment and questionnaire survey were used to collect the data of participants' (n=65) search behavior and their learning outcome, which were elicited when they executed health information search tasks of six different cognitive levels. Paired sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data.［Findings/Conclusion］The results indicate that when users conduct the tasks, their search time, search strategy, operation on target page and click on the result page of search engine differ in the six types of tasks. Besides, in the learning outcome measurement of user search, the variable indicator of users’ familiarity with topics could reveal their learning behavior in an effective way. However, the indicator of user-perceived learning outcome was unable to distinguish the learning outcome of various search tasks at different cognitive levels.

［Originality/Value］This study is an innovative study which attempts to explore the characteristics of college students' health information search behavior and the measurement of their learning outcome by introducing the cognitive taxonomy theory from the perspective of searching as learning (SAL). The findings can provide theoretical foundations for retrieval task design of different complexity and indicator selection of learning outcome measurement in the field of interactive information retrieval in the future.

Key words: Learning outcome, Search behavior, Cognitive learning theory, Online health information, College students, Searching as learning