IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jamist/v58y2007i7p987-998.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The dynamics of interactive information retrieval, Part II: An empirical study from the activity theory perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Yunjie Xu
  • Chengliang Liu

Abstract

Human information‐seeking behavior is complicated. Activity theory is a powerful theoretical instrument to untangle the “complications.” Based on activity theory, a comprehensive framework is proposed in Part I (Y. Xu, 2007) of this report to describe interactive information retrieval (IIR) behavior. A set of propositions is also proposed to describe the mechanisms governing users' cognitive activity and the interaction between users' cognitive states and manifested retrieval behavior. An empirical study is carried out to verify the propositions. The authors' experimental simulation of 81 participants in one search session indicates the propositions are largely supported. Their findings indicate IIR behavior is planned. Users adopt a divide‐and‐conquer strategy in information retrieval. The planning of information retrieval activity is also partially manifested in query revision tactics. Users learn from previously read documents. A user's interaction with a system ultimately changes the user's information need and the resulting relevance judgment, but the dynamics of topicality perception and novelty perception occur at different paces.

Suggested Citation

  • Yunjie Xu & Chengliang Liu, 2007. "The dynamics of interactive information retrieval, Part II: An empirical study from the activity theory perspective," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 58(7), pages 987-998, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:58:y:2007:i:7:p:987-998
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.20574
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20574
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/asi.20574?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:58:y:2007:i:7:p:987-998. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.asis.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.