Dissertation Information for Barbara H Kwasnik NAME: - Barbara H Kwasnik
- (Alias) Barbara Kwasnik
DEGREE:
- Unknown
DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science
SCHOOL:
- Rutgers University (USA) (1989)
ADVISORS: - James D. Anderson
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Nicholas Belkin - Daniel O'Connor - Michael Nilan
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: The influence of context on classificatory behavior
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate and describe the influence of context on the process by which people organize and classify their own documents in their own personal information space.
The research problem is (1) to elicit a description of context in which the person finds him or herself on the occasion of the behavior being studied; (2) to identify what documents are significant in this context; (3) to observe and describe how and under what circumstances the documents are differentiated, classed, and integrated into a meaningful whole; (4) to isolate from this process those dimensions of the user's context and features of documents that are salient for the user; and (5) to identify patterns of this behavior and to discover what rules are followed when people create and organize meanings. The goal is to produce a conceptual model of the users' organizing processes.
Eight university faculty members, men and women from a variety of disciplines and of various academic ranks, were asked to describe their own offices in terms of the organization of what each of them defined as documents. Each subject was also asked to sort a day's mail. Following the data analysis, four of the eight subjects were interviewed once again, at which time the researcher used the results of analysis as a guide and tried to sort and classify each subject's mail as he or she might have.
The major findings were that context does, to a great extent, influence classificatory decisions. The relationship of context to behavior remains relatively stable across the cases. Another finding is that it is possible to elicit information about cognitive processes from participants within the context in which the behavior takes place. People are able to articulate the process by which classification decisions were made, and the data produced by this articulation lend themselves to analysis at a level which can yield general rules about the behavior.
Implications of this study for system design are that it might be advantageous to explore ways of modelling typical contexts, since these seem to be important in classification decisions made within personal information environments.
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MPACT Scores for Barbara H Kwasnik A = 4
C = 38
A+C = 42
T = 4
G = 1
W = 4
TD = 4
TA = 0
calculated 2014-03-08 20:24:26
Advisors and Advisees Graph
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