Understanding users' dynamic perceptions of search gain and cost in sessions (2024)

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Authors: Ben Wang, Jiqun Liu

Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Volume 75, Issue 9

Pages 937 - 956

Published: 17 June 2024 Publication History

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    Abstract

    Understanding the roles of search gain and cost in users' search decision‐making is a key topic in interactive information retrieval (IIR). While previous research has developed user models based on simulated gains and costs, it is unclear how users' actual perceptions of search gains and costs form and change during search interactions. To address this gap, our study adopted expectation‐confirmation theory (ECT) to investigate users' perceptions of gains and costs. We re‐analyzed data from our previous study, examining how contextual and search features affect users' perceptions and how their expectation‐confirmation states impact their following searches. Our findings include: (1) The point where users' actual dwell time meets their constant expectation may serve as a reference point in evaluating perceived gain and cost; (2) these perceptions are associated with in situ experience represented by usefulness labels, browsing behaviors, and queries; (3) users' current confirmation states affect their perceptions of Web page usefulness in the subsequent query. Our findings demonstrate possible effects of expectation‐confirmation, prospect theory, and information foraging theory, highlighting the complex relationships among gain/cost, expectations, and dwell time at the query level, and the reference‐dependent expectation at the session level. These insights enrich user modeling and evaluation in human‐centered IR.

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    Understanding users' dynamic perceptions of search gain and cost in sessions (1)

    Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology Volume 75, Issue 9

    September 2024

    87 pages

    ISSN:2330-1635

    EISSN:2330-1643

    DOI:10.1002/asi.v75.9

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    © 2024 Association for Information Science and Technology.

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    John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

    United States

    Publication History

    Published: 17 June 2024

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