# Presentation: 517098

## COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN WEB SEARCHING

- RAQUEL NAVARRO-PRIETO
- YVONNE ROGERS
- MIKE SCAIFE
- School of Cognitive and Computer Science
- University of Sussex (U.K.)

## Objectives and Questions

- Develop a Cognitive model of web searching
- How people search for information in such a complex environment?
- What are the main users problems?
- Role of interactivity, external representations, mental models?

## How to develop this model?

- STEP 1:
- Theoretical Interactivity framework based on literature
- STEP 2:
- Empirical study
- STEP 3:
- Analysis of the results using the Interactivity framework & External Cognition
- 		Develop the empirical Model
- STEP 4:
- Experimental validation of the Model

## Interactivity framework

**TASK**

## What we know about searching tasks:

- Tasks
- _Web studies:_ Shneiderman ‘s model (1997), details vs. general information (Braham, 1997)
- _Interactive multimedia:_ Effects of interactivity, cognitive principles for CAI.
- Strategies
- _Web studies:_ Effect of: experience (Kellogg and Richards, 1995), strategies (Nielsen, 1997, Pejtersen and Fidel, 1998)
- External representations
- _Interactive multimedia:_ Information retrieval in hypertext system
- _External Cognition:_ Interaction between external representations and internal representations

## Getting data

- Methodology & Design:
- Observational (video recording)
-  Interviews
- Questionnaire: experience, web knowledge, satisfaction.
- Tasks: 4 tasks
- Subjects
- Experienced & novice web users
- Computer Science and Psychology students

## Searching Conditions

## Searching Conditions

- Structure of information

## Searching Conditions

- Structure of information

- Tasks

## Design

## Procedure

**Searching task**
**(experimenter take notes)**

**Interview about the searching**

**Questionnaire**

## FINDINGS

- Questionnaire Results
- Experienced users / novices
- Behavior data & Interviews
- Integration of data from video data analysis and interviews to identify the common patterns

## Cognitive Strategies 1:

- Top- down: descending in the hierarchy

- education

- Looking for a encyclopaedia to find information about Nobel prize

## Cognitive Strategies 2:

- Bottom-up: ascending in the hierarchy

- query: ‘Literature Nobel Prize 1997”

- click on ‘Dario Fo’

- click on ‘Bibliography’

- save

## Cognitive Strategies 3:

- Mixed strategy:

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## Overview of the Interactions:Task/Experience/Strategies

## Interactivity framework

**TASK**

## Model for experienced users

## Model for novice users

- Start with the Categories from Web or keywords provided to them

- Driven by the External Representations

## How searchers use  External Representations

**Making inferences: meaning of link, subcategories, etc.**

**From a general category/query to a specific topic/precise query or changing topic following the suggestions**

**Differentiate the relevant/irrelevant information**

## Design Implications

- Cognitive overload:

- what is in each window
- where they are
- where they have been

- Constraining:

- the structure of the information

- DIMENSIONS:

- EXT. REPRESENT. SHOULD MAKE VISIBLE:

- Re-representation:

- relevant information/scanning

## Conclusions

- Methodological conclusions
- Hypothesis for experimentation
- Manipulate:
- Structure of the information/Experience/External representation
- Design implications