The effect of dyslexia on information retrieval: A pilot study

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to resolve a gap in our knowledge of how people with dyslexia interact with Information Retrieval (IR) systems, specifically an understanding of their information searching behaviour. Very little research has been undertaken with this particular user group, and given the size of the group (an estimated 10% of the population) this lack of knowledge needs to be addressed. Design/Methodology/Approach - We use elements of the dyslexia cognitive profile to design a logging system recording the difference between two sets of participants: dyslexic and control users. We use a standard Okapi interface together with two standard TREC topics in order to record the information searching behaviour of these users. We gather evidence from various sources, including quantitative information on search logs, together with qualitative information from interviews and questionnaires. We record variables on queries, documents, relevance assessments and sessions in the search logs. We use this evidence to examine the difference in searching between the two sets of users, in order to understand the effect of dyslexia on the information searching behaviour. A topic analysis is also conducted on the quantitative data to show any effect on the results from the information need. Research limitations/implications – As this is a pilot study, only 10 participants were recruited for the study, 5 for each user group. Due to ethical issues, the number of topics per search was restricted to one topic only. The study shows that the methodology applied is useful for distinguishing between the two user groups, taking into account differences between topic. We outline further research on the back of this pilot study in four main areas. A different approach from the proposed methodology is needed to measure the effect on query variables, which takes account of topic variation. More details on users are needed such as reading abilities, speed of language processing and working memory to distinguish the user groups. Effect of topic on search interaction must be measured in order to record the potential impact on the dyslexic user group. Work is needed on relevance assessment and effect on precision and recall for users who may not read many documents. Findings – Using the log data, we establish the differences in information searching behaviour of control and dyslexic users i.e. in the way the two groups interact with Okapi, and that qualitative information collected (such as experience etc) may not be able to account for these differences. Evidence from query variables was unable to distinguish between groups, but differences on topic for the same variables were recorded. Users who view more documents tended to judge more documents as being relevant, either in terms of the user group or topic. Session data indicated that there may be an important difference between the number of iterations used in a search between the user groups, as there may be little effect from the topic on this variable. Originality/Value – This is the first study of the effect of dyslexia on information search behaviour, and provides some evidence to take the field forward

Information seeking retrieval, reading and storing behaviour of library users

In the interest of digital libraries, it is advisable that designers be aware of the potential behaviour of the users of such a system. There are two distinct parts under investigation, the interaction between traditional libraries involving the seeking and retrieval of relevant material, and the reading and storage behaviours ensuing. Through this analysis, the findings could be incorporated into digital library facilities. There has been copious amounts of research on information seeking leading to the development of behavioural models to describe the process. Often research on the information seeking practices of individuals is based on the task and field of study. The information seeking model, presented by Ellis et al. (1993), characterises the format of this study where it is used to compare various research on the information seeking practices of groups of people (from academics to professionals). It is found that, although researchers do make use of library facilities, they tend to rely heavily on their own collections and primarily use the library as a source for previously identified information, browsing and interloan. It was found that there are significant differences in user behaviour between the groups analysed. When looking at the reading and storage of material it was hard to draw conclusions, due to the lack of substantial research and information on the topic. However, through the use of reading strategies, a general idea on how readers behave can be developed. Designers of digital libraries can benefit from the guidelines presented here to better understand their audience

Shedding light on a living lab: the CLEF NEWSREEL open recommendation platform

In the CLEF NEWSREEL lab, participants are invited to evaluate news recommendation techniques in real-time by providing news recommendations to actual users that visit commercial news portals to satisfy their information needs. A central role within this lab is the communication between participants and the users. This is enabled by The Open Recommendation Platform (ORP), a web-based platform which distributes users' impressions of news articles to the participants and returns their recommendations to the readers. In this demo, we illustrate the platform and show how requests are handled to provide relevant news articles in real-time

Write While You Search: Ambient Searching of a Digital Library in the Context of Writing

We consider ideas for a tighter integration of searching a digital library while writing a paper. A prototype system based on web services is described which allows us to explore the design space of ambient search tools to support and inspire the writing process.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Elaboration over a Discourse Facilitates Retrieval in Sentence Processing.

Language comprehension requires access to stored knowledge and the ability to combine knowledge in new, meaningful ways. Previous work has shown that processing linguistically more complex expressions ('Texas cattle rancher' vs. 'rancher') leads to slow-downs in reading during initial processing, possibly reflecting effort in combining information. Conversely, when this information must subsequently be retrieved (as in filler-gap constructions), processing is facilitated for more complex expressions, possibly because more semantic cues are available during retrieval. To follow up on this hypothesis, we tested whether information distributed across a short discourse can similarly provide effective cues for retrieval. Participants read texts introducing two referents (e.g., two senators), one of whom was described in greater detail than the other (e.g., 'The Democrat had voted for one of the senators, and the Republican had voted for the other, a man from Ohio who was running for president'). The final sentence (e.g., 'The senator who the {Republican/Democrat}had voted for…') contained a relative clause picking out either the Many-Cue referent (with 'Republican') or the One-Cue referent (with 'Democrat'). We predicted facilitated retrieval (faster reading times) for the Many-Cue condition at the verb region ('had voted for'), where readers could understand that 'The senator' is the object of the verb. As predicted, this pattern was observed at the retrieval region and continued throughout the rest of the sentence. Participants also completed the Author/Magazine Recognition Tests (ART/MRT; Stanovich and West, 1989), providing a proxy for world knowledge. Since higher ART/MRT scores may index (a) greater experience accessing relevant knowledge and/or (b) richer/more highly structured representations in semantic memory, we predicted it would be positively associated with effects of elaboration on retrieval. We did not observe the predicted interaction between ART/MRT scores and Cue condition at the retrieval region, though ART/MRT interacted with Cue condition in other locations in the sentence. In sum, we found that providing more elaborative information over the course of a text can facilitate retrieval for referents, consistent with a framework in which referential elaboration over a discourse and not just local linguistic information directly impacts information retrieval during sentence processing

More than Words: The Impact of Memory on How Undergraduates with Dyslexia Interact with Information

Despite the prevalence of dyslexia and the challenges it poses for seeking, assessing and using information, there has been relatively little research on the challenges people with dyslexia face when interacting with information. What existing research there is has mostly focused on the impact on information comprehension and spelling. However, people with dyslexia often face considerable memory impairment that can affect their learning. This paper reports findings from retrospective think-aloud (RTA) observations with 13 undergraduates with dyslexia, focusing on the memory-related barriers they face and the workarounds they use to overcome these barriers. An enhanced understanding of the full range of barriers faced by information-seekers with dyslexia can inform the design of dyslexia-aware digital information environments and information literacy programs. These can ‘level the information playing field’ by helping to break down barriers to information and, in turn, to knowledge creation