Dissertation Information for Susan Claire Boerner NAME: - Susan Claire Boerner
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science
SCHOOL:
- University of Maryland (USA) (1998)
ADVISORS: - Dagobert Soergel - Marilyn Domas White
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Gary Marchionini - Kent L. Norman - Claude E. Walston
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: A study of novice searchers' evolving task and topic knowledge
Abstract: This study traced novice searchers' conceptualizations and use of topic knowledge as they used a full-text retrieval system to get source material for a series of papers on a single topic. Data describing participants' task and topic knowledge and their rationale for search actions were collected twice during a semester. Iterative analyses developed and refined a description of participants' cognitive actions while searching. Cognitive actions were combined with search protocols to link searchers' actions to their representations and use of knowledge.
Study participants were pairs of freshman English students searching for sources to write a series of papers on a single topic. Data were collected from searches, post-search interviews, and search contexts. Transcriptions of searcher-system interactions provided protocols for system-searcher interactions. Pairs' dialogues during searches provided concurrent verbal protocols of searches. Post-search interviews focused on searchers' conceptualizations and use of knowledge.
After first classifying cognitive data within problem-solving and knowledge-acquisition frameworks, data analysis focused on participants' perceptions and use of topic cues displayed by the search system. The effects of learning about topics over the course of a semester on search actions were also analyzed.
The findings of this study are that novice searchers' knowledge of writing tasks structures their ideas about the types of information they need and strongly affects their search activities. The effect of task structures is particularly pronounced during early stages of information seeking, when participants have little personal knowledge about their topics. As participants learn about their topics, their representations of topic knowledge become more concrete and play a greater role in guiding search activities. However, their frameworks for writing tasks continue to constrain and organize their use of knowledge exert an overriding influence on their perception and use of topic knowledge during searches.
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