KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION IN AN INFORMATION-RETRIEVAL TASK

One characteristic that may affect the way users interact with information systems is the way they organize their knowledge of the topic to be searched. An experiment was conducted to determine the extent and nature of this effect. Subjects who were given different advance organizers read texts and responded to questions about the topics in the texts. These questions were presented in an information retrieval context, on simulated pre-search forms. It was found that different organizing structures affected responses to questions in one topic of the three that were investigated. This demonstrates a complex interaction between the topic of the search, the organizing structure employed by users, and questions asked by intermediaries. Because the way users organize their knowledge has an impact on their interaction with information systems, these organizing structures may be candidates for inclusion in cognitive models of users. Other user characteristics that may affect information retrieval can be investigated using this type of experiment. © 1990.