Open AccessHeuristic and Systematic Use of Search Engines
Author(s) -
Wirth Werner,
Böcking Tabea,
Karnowski Veronika,
Von Pape Thilo
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of computer‐mediated communication
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.15
H-Index - 119
ISSN - 1083-6101
DOI - 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00350.x
Subject(s) - heuristic , computer science , information retrieval , artificial intelligence
It is becoming increasingly important to understand in greater detail how people process information and make decisions while searching on the World Wide Web. With the distinction between systematic and heuristic processing, dual‐process theories and decision theory provide a useful framework for analyzing this decision‐making. A laboratory quasi‐experiment was conducted, combining a client‐oriented Web content analysis, think aloud technique, and an online questionnaire. From the data obtained, two different search sequence levels were created and analyzed. The results show that within these sequences, different degrees of heuristic and systematic processing occurred, depending on the situational demands as well as the Web experience and the domain specific involvement of the user.