Cognitive economy and satisficing in information seeking: A longitudinal study of undergraduate information behavior

Abstract

Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThis paper reports on a longitudinal study of information seeking by undergraduate Information Management students. It describes how they found and used information, and explores their motivation and decision making. We employed a use-in-context approach where students were observed conducting, and interviewed about, information seeking tasks carried out during their academic work.We found that participants were reluctant to engage with a complex range of information sources, preferring to use the internet. The main driver for progress in information seeking was the immediate demands of their work (e.g. assignments). Students used their growing expertise to justify a conservative information strategy, retaining established strategies as far as possible and completing tasks with minimum information seeking effort. The time cost of using library material limited the uptake of such resources. New methods for discovering and selecting information were only adopted when immediately relevant to the task at hand, and tasks are generally chosen or interpreted in ways that minimised the need to develop new strategies. Students were driven by the demands of the task to use different types of information resources, but remained reluctant to move beyond keyword searches, even when they proved ineffective. They also lacked confidence in evaluating the relative usefulness of resources.Whereas existing literature on satisficing has focused on stopping conditions, this work has highlighted a richer 2 repertoire of satisficing behaviours.

The Impact of RDS on Usage of Electronic Content in UK Academic Libraries: Selected Results from a UKSG-Funded Project

“…The one-stop-shop experience RDS offer meets the observed changes in users' information seeking behaviours. Amongst those changes is the fact that students are indicating a marked preference towards using search engines and the Internet to source information for their academic endeavours (Warwick et al, 2009). In addition, the single search box, emulating the search engine experience, brings a new dimension to information searching via library portals, bringing down the walls between library collections.…”

“…Not only do electronic resources offer greater accessibility than printed resources, but they also offer greater currency, particularly with the development of online publishing ahead of print. In their longitudinal study of undergraduate students, Warwick, Rimmer, Blandford, Gow, and Buchanan (2009) have shown that students have a marked preference towards using the Internet to source information for the academic task at hand rather than using the varied and complex range of library resources. Moreover, students exhibit 'strategic satisficing' behaviours (Warwick et al, 2009), whereby they tend to reproduce known and successful information searching strategies (i.e.…”

“…In their longitudinal study of undergraduate students, Warwick, Rimmer, Blandford, Gow, and Buchanan (2009) have shown that students have a marked preference towards using the Internet to source information for the academic task at hand rather than using the varied and complex range of library resources. Moreover, students exhibit 'strategic satisficing' behaviours (Warwick et al, 2009), whereby they tend to reproduce known and successful information searching strategies (i.e. within their comfort zone, what the authors call 'cognitive economy') providing them with sufficient information in little time, and they are reluctant to develop their information searching skills and expertise further, unless required by the task at hand.…”

“…within their comfort zone, what the authors call 'cognitive economy') providing them with sufficient information in little time, and they are reluctant to develop their information searching skills and expertise further, unless required by the task at hand. Another important point in Warwick et al (2009)'s studies is the refutation of the common assertion that the Internet searching skills ascribed to the new generation of students should naturally translate into expertise in general information seeking.…”

Using screen video capture software to aide and inform cognitive interviewing

“…As such, past research supports the use of Camtasia as a data collection tool within qualitative interviews discussing computer-based activities (i.e. website utilization, webbased programs) (Barmby et al 2009;Lim 2002;Qiu et al 2007;Warwick et al 2009). To date, however, few researchers have used Camtasia to aid in conducting cognitive interviews, and those that have utilized the software in this capacity, mainly employed the recording features to capture the "think aloud" component of cognitive interviewing, or to record the audio, while playbacks of captured video are reviewed with research participants (Lim 2002;Qiu et al 2007;Willson and Given 2010).…”