How does Cognitive Ability impact the use of Query Reformulation Moves?

People have different mental strengths and weakness, which can be measured according to cognitive ability. Learning about strengths and preferences in terms of search behavior, and looking for patterns between behaviors and cognitive abilities, creates the opportunity to make search tools and systems more effectively meet user needs and preferences. While we know that different cognitive abilities exist, and that people form and reform search queries in a variety of ways, we do not know how these two elements interact, or if the interaction is predictable or significant. This paper performs secondary analysis of data collected during a study of cognitive ability, adding in the element of query reformulation moves. It assesses the effect of these cognitive abilities on study participants' search formulation behaviors. Analysis showed that the most common search move was adding a concept to a query, followed by deleting concepts and manipulating search terms. Of the cognitive abilities, the only statistically significant differences between high and low groups were found in the visualization ability. Those in the high skill group made significantly more moves, and significantly more term manipulation moves, than their low skill counterparts.Master of Science in Information Scienc

An analysis of age, technology usage, and cognitive characteristics within information retrieval tasks

This work presents two studies that aim to discover whether age can be used as a suitable metric for distinguishing performance between individuals or if other factors can provide greater insight. Information retrieval tasks are used to test the performance of these factors. First, a study is introduced that examines the effect that fluid intelligence and Internet usage has on individuals. Second, a larger study is reported on that examines a collection of Internet and cognitive factors in order to determine to what extent each of these metrics can account for disorientation in users. This work adds to growing evidence showing that age is not a suitable metric to distinguish between individuals within the field of human-computer interaction. It shows that factors such as previous Internet experience and fluid-based cognitive abilities can be used to gain better insight into users' reported browsing experience during information retrieval tasks

Survey on Individual Differences in Visualization

Developments in data visualization research have enabled visualization systems to achieve great general usability and application across a variety of domains. These advancements have improved not only people's understanding of data, but also the general understanding of people themselves, and how they interact with visualization systems. In particular, researchers have gradually come to recognize the deficiency of having one-size-fits-all visualization interfaces, as well as the significance of individual differences in the use of data visualization systems. Unfortunately, the absence of comprehensive surveys of the existing literature impedes the development of this research. In this paper, we review the research perspectives, as well as the personality traits and cognitive abilities, visualizations, tasks, and measures investigated in the existing literature. We aim to provide a detailed summary of existing scholarship, produce evidence-based reviews, and spur future inquiry

Vertical Search Behavior and Preference of Users with Different Visual Memory and Perceptual Speed Abilities

Vertical search in Information Retrieval (IR) represents display opportunities for searcher interaction in the form of blended and non-blended results. Search behavior and preference in interacting with these results can be influenced by both design and personal, cognitive abilities. This study evaluates the relationship between cognitive ability and vertical search behavior and preference. In this lab study cognitive tests measuring perceptual speed and visual memory were administered to sixteen participants who subsequently performed four search tasks on two search engines, one with a blended display and one with a non-blended display. Cognitive tests, search logs and participant questionnaires were used to evaluate vertical search behavior and preference in cognitively high and low performers. The findings suggest that cognitive ability influences vertical search engagement and preference. The value in this research is its ability to contribute to issues of result merging, display, and interaction at a personal level in vertical search.Master of Science in Information Scienc

Driven to distraction : examining the influence of distractors on search behaviours, performance and experience

Advertisements, sponsored links, clickbait, in-house recommendations and similar elements pervasively shroud featured content. Such elements vie for people's attention, potentially distracting people from their task at hand. The effects of such "distractors" is likely to increase people's cognitive workload and reduce their performance as they need to work harder to discern the relevant from non-relevant. In this paper, we investigate how people of varying cognitive abilities (measured using Perceptual Speed and Cognitive Failure instruments) are affected by these different types of distractions when completing search tasks. We performed a crowdsourced within-subjects user study, where 102 participants completed four search tasks using our news search engine over four different interface conditions: (i) one with no additional distractors; (ii) one with advertisements; (iii) one with sponsored links; and (iv) one with in-house recommendations. Our results highlight a number of important trends and findings. Participants perceived the interface condition without distractors as significantly better across numerous dimensions. Participants reported higher satisfaction, lower workload, higher topic recall, and found it easier to concentrate. Behaviourally, participants issued queries faster and clicked results earlier when compared to the interfaces with distractors. When using the interfaces with distractors, one in ten participants clicked on a distractor—and despite engaging with a distractor for less than twenty seconds, their task time increased by approximately two minutes. We found that the effects were magnified depending on cognitive abilities—with a greater impact of distractors on participants with lower perceptual speed, and for those with a higher propensity of cognitive failures. Distractors—regardless of their type—have negative consequences on a user’s search experience and performance. As a consequence, interfaces containing visually distracting elements are creating poorer search experiences due to the "distractor tax" being placed on people's limited attention

Visual perception in relation to levels of meaning for children: An exploratory study.

This study explores distinct levels of meaning from images of picture books perceived by 3- to 5-year-old children and investigates how the certain visual perception factors influence children's meaning making and if these factors are correlated. The literature review supports associations among visual perception, information, picture books, meaning, and children. Visual perception serves as the first channel that filters and interprets visual information, and picture books provide visual and verbal experience for children, who constantly search for meaning. Children age 3 to 5 years are potential users of picture books because pictorial information is considered useful to children's learning tasks. Previous research reveals that various factors influence visual perception, and meaning has been mostly associated with its semantic significance in information retrieval. In information science, little research has focused on young children's own way of categorizing information, especially visual information. In order to investigate the distinct levels of meaning perceived by children, the investigation employed both qualitative and quantitative methods including unobtrusive and participant observation, factor analysis, content analysis, and case study. The result of this study contributes to understanding the cognitive process of children related to visual literacy and their interpreting visual information in a digital environment

LOAN ME THE MONEY: HOW COGNITIVE ABILITIES AND FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE INFLUENCE CONSUMERS’ INFORMATION BEHAVIORS

For most people, financial well-being depends on the ability to make sound decisions about many aspects of personal finance. This is especially true in the United States (U.S.), when it comes to consumer loan products such as mortgages and student loans. Consumers who lack strong financial knowledge can unwittingly expose themselves to bad information when searching online. Without understanding people’s searching behaviors, information professionals cannot know whether personal finance-related information systems adequately meet the needs of the people using them. Interactive Information Retrieval (IIR) is well-suited to study this, yet there has been little research in this area. One approach that makes sense for studying debt-related information searching is to investigate the role individual differences play in people’s searching. This is because individual differences are testable constructs that can be associated with differences in search performance outcomes. The purpose of this dissertation research is to understand influences that cognitive abilities and financial knowledge have on outcomes related to search, assessment, and mental workload of adults searching online for debt-related personal finance information. A theoretical model is proposed in which financial knowledge acts as a moderating variable on the effect that cognitive abilities have on search and evaluation behaviors as well as mental workload. The results of the study were mixed. The testing of hypotheses on the model were unsuccessful and provide information for informing future model designs and hypothesis development. The qualitative portion of the study provided numerous insights, including that the topic of personal finance, specifically in the realm of financial loans such as mortgages, student loans, and payday loans, is more challenging for people than they realize. Participants reported low prior knowledge of all task topics and used simple search strategies such as avoiding advertisements on search engine results pages (SERPs), relying heavily on the first SERP result, and reformulating queries rather than investigating SERPs at deeper levels. Participants rated most webpages they found as relevant or very relevant but expert assessors rated most of those same pages as only somewhat relevant or not relevant. The findings have numerous implications and point to key areas for further research.Doctor of Philosoph

Just-in-time Information Interfaces: A new Paradigm for Information Discovery and Exploration

We live in a time of increasing information overload. Described as “a byproduct of the lack of maturity of the information age” (Spira & Goldes, 2007), information overload can be painful, and harm our concentration - the resulting choice overload impacts out decision-making abilities. Given the problem of information overload, and the unsatisfying nature of human-information interaction using traditional browsing or keyword-based search, this research investigates how the design of just-in-time information services can improve the user experience of goal-driven interactions with information. This thesis explores the design of just-in-time information services through the iterative development of two strands of high-level prototypes (FMI and KnowDis). I custombuilt both prototype systems for the respective evaluations, which have then been conducted as part of a series of lab-based eye-tracking studies (FMI) as well as two field studies (KnowDis). The lab-based eye-tracking studies were conducted with 100 participants measuring task performance, user satisfaction, and gaze behaviour. The lab studies found that the FMI prototype design did improve the performance aspect of the user experience for all participants and improved the usability aspect of the user experience for novice participants. However, the FMI prototype design seemed to be less effective and usable for expert participants. Two field studies were conducted as part of a two-year research collaboration, which lasted a total of 10 weeks and involved approximately 70 knowledge workers overall from across the globe. As part of those field studies, 46 semi-structured interviews were also conducted. The field studies found that the KnowDis prototype design did improve the user experience for participants overall by making work-related information search more efficient. However, while the KnowDis prototype design was useful for some knowledge workers and even integrated seamlessly into their day-to-day work, it appeared to be less useful and even distracting to others

Modelling the IR task: supporting the user

The need for improved interface designs and targeted task support were highlighted based on performance data gathered in an empirical evaluation of a typical commercial database: MEDLINE1. The thesis outlines theoretical work addressing the cognitive activity underlying searchers behaviour in the information retrieval task and unifies this into a cognitive task model of their information seeking behaviour. The motivation for this work is to understand; explain and minimise the mismatch between information retrieval interfaces, and their associated functionality, and users’ mental models of the search process. The cognitive model consists of IR processes, cognitive activities, correspondence rules, knowledge sources necessary to support the task, strategies, tactics and IR systems representations. The cognitive model is related to specific systems through taxonomies of possible functionality. The model is evaluated by comparing empirical observations of users’ information retrieval against the models predictions of behaviour for a specific situation. Design implications attempt to link the model of human action to what users need to know and the task support provided by an IR system to indicate and justify design requirements. In this way the research attempts to define the facilities which support user process. A concept demonstrator is presented with associated usability studies. The effectiveness and limitations of this approach to the systematic design and evaluation of IR systems are discussed