Dissertation Information for Prudence Ward DalrympleNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Fully Complete Title: RETRIEVAL BY REFORMULATION IN TWO LIBRARY CATALOGS: TOWARD A COGNITIVE MODEL OF SEARCHING BEHAVIOR Abstract: The study was designed to test hypotheses derived from a psychological theory of remembering. An analogy between patterns of retrieval from human long-term memory and information retrieval from bibliographic databases was proposed. The model, known as retrieval by reformulation, was first articulated by Williams and Tou in 1982. The setting for the research was the public catalog at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where a substantial portion of the library's bibliographic records is available in two formats, a card catalog and an online catalog. Forty university students in two groups were randomly assigned to the two catalogs and completed a series of five searches on specified topics. It was hypothesized that the two searching environments were sufficiently different, particularly in the degree and kind of feedback provided to searchers, to allow observation of differences on four classes of variables: search outcome, attitude toward the search experience and assessment of search results, perseverance, and number of reformulations. Findings indicated that greater perseverance and more frequent query reformulations were associated with the online searching context. Larger retrieval sets and more favorable search assessments were associated with the card catalog context. No significant differences were found between groups on the attitudinal measures; however, initial steps were taken toward identifying three effective constructs: "affability," "frustration," and "expectation." In order to observe the cognitive processes used in searching, subjects were asked to "think aloud" while they searched. Transcripts of these verbal protocols were used to identify reformulations and to further operationalize the theoretical construct "reformulation." Observations were made regarding the utility of protocol analysis in information retrieval research. Additional post hoc analyses included overlap of sets of retrieved items and investigation of variance associated with the use of test questions. |
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Students under Prudence Ward Dalrymple
ADVISEES:
- None
COMMITTEESHIPS:
- Szarina Bt. Abdullah - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1989)