Open AccessThe role of subjective factors in the information search process
Author(s) -
Gwizdka Jacek,
Lopatovska Irene
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of the american society for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1532-2890
pISSN - 1532-2882
DOI - 10.1002/asi.21183
Subject(s) - happiness , task (project management) , psychology , perception , feeling , process (computing) , quality (philosophy) , social psychology , cognitive psychology , applied psychology , computer science , philosophy , management , epistemology , neuroscience , economics , operating system
We investigated the role of subjective factors in the information search process. Forty‐eight participants each conducted six Web searches in a controlled setting. We examined relationships between subjective factors (happiness levels, satisfaction with and confidence in the search results, feeling lost during search, familiarity with and interest in the search topic, estimation of task difficulty) and objective factors (search behavior, search outcomes, and search‐task characteristics). Data analysis was conducted using a multivariate statistical test (canonical correlations analysis). The findings confirmed existence of several relationships suggested by prior research, including relationships between objective search task difficulty and the perception of task difficulty, and between subjective states and search behaviors and outcomes. One of the original findings suggests that higher happiness levels before and during the search correlate with better feelings after the search, but also correlate with worse search outcomes and lower satisfaction, suggesting that, perhaps, it pays off to feel some “pain” during the search to “gain” quality outcomes.