Does document relevance affect the searcher's perception 0f time?

Time plays an essential role in multiple areas of Information Retrieval (IR) studies such as search evaluation, user behavior analysis, temporal search result ranking and query understanding. Especially, in search evaluation studies, time is usually adopted as a measure to quantify users' efforts in search processes. Psychological studies have reported that the time perception of human beings can be affected by many stimuli, such as attention and motivation, which are closely related to many cognitive factors in search. Considering the fact that users' search experiences are affected by their subjective feelings of time, rather than the objective time measured by timing devices, it is necessary to look into the different factors that have impacts on search users' perception of time. In this work, we make a first step towards revealing the time perception mechanism of search users with the following contributions: (1) We establish an experimental research framework to measure the subjective perception of time while reading documents in search scenario, which originates from but is also different from traditional time perception measurements in psychological studies. (2) With the framework, we show that while users are reading result documents, document relevance has small yet visible effect on search users' perception of time. By further examining the impact of other factors, we demonstrate that the effect on relevant documents can also be influenced by individuals and tasks. (3) We conduct a preliminary experiment in which the difference between perceived time and dwell time is taken into consideration in a search evaluation task. We found that the revised framework achieved a better correlation with users' satisfaction feedbacks. This work may help us better understand the time perception mechanism of search users and provide insights in how to better incorporate time factor in search evaluation studies

Effectiveness of a web-based treatment program using intensive therapeutic support for female patients with bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and eating disorders not otherwise specified: study protocol of a randomized controlled trial

Background: Disordered eating behavior and body dissatisfaction affect a large proportion of the Dutch population and account for severe psychological, physical and social morbidity. Yet, the threshold for seeking professional care is still high. In the Netherlands, only 7.5% of patients with bulimia nervosa and 33% of patients with anorexia nervosa are treated within the mental health care system. Easily accessible and low-threshold interventions, therefore, are needed urgently. The internet has great potential to offer such interventions. The aim of this study is to determine whether a web-based treatment program for patients with eating disorders can improve eating disorder psychopathology among female patients with bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and eating disorders not otherwise specified. Methods/design: This randomized controlled trial will compare the outcomes of an experimental treatment group to a waiting list control group. In the web-based treatment program, participants will communicate personally and asynchronously with their therapists exclusively via the internet. The first part of the program will focus on analyzing eating attitudes and behaviors. In the second part of the program participants will learn how to change their attitudes and behaviors. Participants assigned to the waiting list control group will receive no-reply email messages once every two weeks during the waiting period of 15 weeks, after which they can start the program. The primary outcome measure is an improvement in eating disorder psychopathology as determined by the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire. Secondary outcomes include improvements in body image, physical and mental health, body weight, self-esteem, quality of life, and social contacts. In addition, the participants’ motivation for treatment and their acceptability of the program and the therapeutic alliance will be measured. The study will follow the recommendations in the CONSORT statement relating to designing and reporting on RCTs. Discussion: This study protocol presents the design of a RCT for evaluating the effectiveness of a web-based treatment program using intensive therapeutic support for female patients with bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and eating disorders not otherwise specified