Abbreviated Contents Figures and Tables Preface Introduction and Examples Concepts Relevant to Information Behavior Models, Paradigms, and Theories in the Study of Information Behavior Methods for Studying Information Behavior Research Results and Reflections Appendix: Glossary Appendix: Questions for Discussion and Application References Index

Looking for Information: A Survey of Research on Information Seeking, Needs and Behavior

The Turn: Integration of Information Seeking and Retrieval in Context (The Information Retrieval Series)

The objective of the paper is to amalgamate theories of text retrieval from various research traditions into a cognitive theory for information retrieval interaction. Set in a cognitive framework, the paper outlines the concept of polyrepresentation applied to both the user's cognitive space and the information space of IR systems. The concept seeks to represent the current user's information need, problem state, and domain work task or interest in a structure of causality. Further, it implies that we should apply different methods of representation and a variety of IR techniques of different cognitive and functional origin simultaneously to each semantic full‐text entity in the information space. The cognitive differences imply that by applying cognitive overlaps of information objects, originating from different interpretations of such objects through time and by type, the degree of uncertainty inherent in IR is decreased. Polyrepresentation and the use of cognitive overlaps are associated with, but not identical to, data fusion in IR. By explicitly incorporating all the cognitive structures participating in the interactive communication processes during IR, the cognitive theory provides a comprehensive view of these processes. It encompasses the ad hoc theories of text retrieval and IR techniques hitherto developed in mainstream retrieval research. It has elements in common with van Rijsbergen and Lalmas' logical uncertainty theory and may be regarded as compatible with that conception of IR. Epistemologically speaking, the theory views IR interaction as processes of cognition, potentially occurring in all the information processing components of IR, that may be applied, in particular, to the user in a situational context. The theory draws upon basic empirical results from information seeking investigations in the operational online environment, and from mainstream IR research on partial matching techniques and relevance feedback. By viewing users, source systems, intermediary mechanisms and information in a global context, the cognitive perspective attempts a comprehensive understanding of essential IR phenomena and concepts, such as the nature of information needs, cognitive inconsistency and retrieval overlaps, logical uncertainty, the concept of ‘document’, relevance measures and experimental settings. An inescapable consequence of this approach is to rely more on sociological and psychological investigative methods when evaluating systems and to view relevance in IR as situational, relative, partial, differentiated and non‐linear. The lack of consistency among authors, indexers, evaluators or users is of an identical cognitive nature. It is unavoidable, and indeed favourable to IR. In particular, for full‐text retrieval, alternative semantic entities, including Salton et al.'s ‘passage retrieval’, are proposed to replace the traditional document record as the basic retrieval entity. These empirically observed phenomena of inconsistency and of semantic entities and values associated with data interpretation support strongly a cognitive approach to IR and the logical use of polyrepresentation, cognitive overlaps, and both data fusion and data diffusion.

Cognitive perspectives of information retrieval interaction : elements of a cognitive IR theory

In the Web, making judgments of information quality and authority is a difficult task for most users because overall, there is no quality control mechanism. This study examines the problem of the judgment of information quality and cognitive authority by observing people's searching behavior in the Web. Its purpose is to understand the various factors that influence people's judgment of quality and authority in the Web, and the effects of those judgments on selection behaviors. Fifteen scholars from diverse disciplines participated, and data were collected combining verbal protocols during the searches, search logs, and postsearch interviews. It was found that the subjects made two distinct kinds of judgment: predictive judgment, and evaluative judgment. The factors influencing each judgment of quality and authority were identified in terms of characteristics of information objects, characteristics of sources, knowledge, situation, ranking in search output, and general assumption. Implications for Web design that will effectively support people's judgments of quality and authority are also discussed.

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Judgement of information quality and cognitive authority in the Web

This article introduces the concept of relevance as viewed and applied in the context of IR evaluation, by presenting an overview of the multidimensional and dynamic nature of the concept. The literature on relevance reveals how the relevance concept, especially in regard to the multidimensionality of relevance, is many faceted, and does not just refer to the various relevance criteria users may apply in the process of judging relevance of retrieved information objects. From our point of view, the multidimensionality of relevance explains why some will argue that no consensus has been reached on the relevance concept. Thus, the objective of this article is to present an overview of the many different views and ways by which the concept of relevance is used--leading to a consistent and compatible understanding of the concept. In addition, special attention is paid to the type of situational relevance. Many researchers perceive situational relevance as the most realistic type of user relevance, and therefore situational relevance is discussed with reference to its potential dynamic nature, and as a requirement for interactive information retrieval (IIR) evaluation.

The concept of relevance in IR

The objective of this study was to describe the criteria mentioned by users evaluating the information within documents as it related to the users' information need situations. Data were collected by asking users in an academic environment to evaluate representations and the full text of documents that had been retrieved specifically for each user's information need situation. Users were asked to mark the portions of the document representations or of the full text of documents that indicated to the users whether they would or would not pursue the information within documents. An open-ended interview technique was then employed to discuss each marked portion with users. The interviews were audiotaped, the tapes transcribed, and the transcriptions were content analyzed in order to identify and describe evaluation criteria.



The results indicate that the criteria employed by users included tangible characteristics of documents (e.g., the information content of the document, the provision of references to other sources of information), subjective qualities (e.g., agreement with the information provided by the document) and situational factors (e.g., the time constraints under which the user was working). The implications of this research for our understanding of the concept of relevance, and for the design and evaluation of information retrieval systems, are discussed. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

User-defined relevance criteria: an exploratory study

This article takes a cognitive approach toward understanding the behaviors of end-users by focusing on the values or criteria they employ in making relevance judgments, or decisions about whether to obtain and use information. It compares and contrasts the results of two empirical studies in which criteria were elicited directly from individuals who were seeking information to resolve their own information problems. In one study, respondents were faculty and students in an academic environment examining print documents from traditional text-based information retrieval systems. In the other study, respondents were occupational users of weather-related information in a multimedia environment in which sources included interpersonal communication, mass media, weather instruments, and computerized weather systems. The results of the studies, taken together, provide evidence that a finite range of criteria exists and that these criteria are applied consistently across types of information users, problem situations, and source environments.

Users' criteria for relevance evaluation: a cross-situational comparison

Research into the role of document representations in the relevance judgment process has focused on the ability of users to predict the relevance of documents based on various document representations. Conclusions have been stated as to the comparative effectiveness of various document representations, but there has been little exploration into why certain document representations seem to enable users to better predict the relevance of documents. This examination is an attempt to identify the extent to which various document representations contain clues that allow users to determine the presence or absence of traits and/or qualities that determine the relevance of the document to the user's situation. Motivated users discussed their reasons for pursuing or not pursuing documents based on information contained within representations of those documents (i.e., titles, abstracts, indexing terms, etc.). The results are presented as the co-occurrence of respondents' mentions of various traits and/or qualities, and the document representations that led to such responses. It is concluded that document representations may differ in their effectiveness as indicators of potential relevance because different types of document representations vary in their ability to present clues for specific traits and/or qualities. Suggestions for further research are provided.

Document representations and clues to document relevance

User-Defined Relevance Criteria: A Comparison of Two Studies.

As follow-up to discussions at the 2002 ASIST SIG USE Research Symposium on “Measuring Search Behaviors,” a Delphi study was conducted. It was designed to solicit expert opinion on two methodological aspects of research on online search behaviors: (1) the variables that are most critical to such studies and (2) methods for measuring these variables. A panel of over 75 experts participate in the three rounds of the study. A small number of variables related to the search process, databases and search systems, and the user/searcher were identified as having the highest priority for research, and can form the basis for a research agenda in the study of online searching behaviors. The third round of the survey identified the strengths and weaknesses of possible approaches to measurement of 11 of the variables that pose significant measurement challenges. In this panel, the outcomes of the study will be briefly reported. Then the panelists will discuss these results from the perspectives of a scholar who did not participate in the study (Janes), a scholar who did participate (Goodrum), and a practitioner who did participate (Hirsh).

https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/meet.14504201149

Carol L. Barry

Papers

User-defined relevance criteria: an exploratory study

Users' criteria for relevance evaluation: a cross-situational comparison

Document representations and clues to document relevance

User-Defined Relevance Criteria: A Comparison of Two Studies.

Establishing a research agenda for studies of online search behaviors