The Use of Proximal Information Scent to Forage for Distal Content on the World Wide Web
This chapter summarizes information foraging research on use of the World Wide Web (the Web). The particular focus is placed on a psychological theory of information scent that is embedded in a broader model of information foraging on the Web. It specifically presents a theoretical account of information scent that supports the development of models of navigation choice. Next, it reports some aspects of the Web environment that will be relevant to developing a model of how people assess information scent cues to navigate. The Brunswik's lens model view is then used to frame the development of a stochastic model of individual utility judgment and choice that derives from a Bayesian analysis of the environment. Finally, it evaluates a model of Web foraging that addresses data collected from Web users working on tasks in a study that attempted to follow Brunswik's tenets of representative design.
Keywords: information scent, World Wide Web, information forage, psychological theory, Brunswik's lens model, Bayesian analysis
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