探索式搜索任务属性与信息搜索行为的关系研究

Research on the Relationship Between Exploratory Search Task Attributes and Information Search Behavior

针对探索式搜索任务属性与信息搜索行为关系的问题,文章探讨高任务复杂度与高任务困难度与用户信息搜索行为之间的关系,并探究可预测这两种任务属性的搜索行为特征。采用实验研究方法,设计四项模拟仿真工作任务及一项真实工作任务,招募48名实验参加者,利用视频软件记录其搜索的过程。在搜索前问卷中采用结构复杂性、过程复杂性和复杂性评估等测量主观任务复杂度。在搜索后问卷中采用查询难度、实施难度和相关性判断难度等测量任务困难度。通过分析实验视频,共抽取了检索词、全文下载、列表翻页、高级检索的使用、优化、打开摘要页和文档处理方式七项行为指标。研究表明,不管是搜索高复杂度任务还是高困难度任务,用户的不同搜索行为之间存在显著的相关关系。尽管并未发现可有效预测任务高复杂度的行为指标,但全文下载、列表翻页和打开摘要页可显著预测高任务困难度。本研究有助于进一步厘清探索式搜索任务属性与信息搜索行为之间的关系,对数字图书馆更好地支持基于任务的个性化信息检索具有理论和实践意义。

This study explores the relationship between exploratory search task attributes and information search be- haviorby an experiment. Foursimulated work task situations are designed to examine the issues and assigned to 48 par- ticipants. Meanwhile, the 48 participants are required to bring one real work task to the experiment. The experiment is recorded by video software. Subjective task complexity is measured through structure complexity, process complexity and output complexity in the pre-search questionnaire. Task difficulty is measured throughquery difficulty, search diffi- culty and relevance judgement difficulty in the post-search questionnaire. Seven types of behaviors are extracted from the recordings, such as querying, full-text downloading, page turning, using advanced search, refining, opening the ab- stract page and way to process the file. The results indicate that whether searching for high-complexity task or high-dif- fieuhy task, users＇ searching behaviors are significantly correlated to each other. Although the study does not find sig- nificant predictors for high-complexity tasks, the number of full-text downloading, page could significantly predict high-difficulty tasks. The study has implications in personalization of information retrieval.