Knowledge in the head and on the web: using topic expertise to aid search

Geoffrey B Duggan; Stephen J Payne

doi:10.1145/1357054.1357062

Knowledge in the head and on the web: using topic expertise to aid search

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceeding › Chapter in a published conference proceeding

48 Citations (SciVal)

145 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The importance of background knowledge for effective searching on the Web is not well understood. Participants were given trivia questions on two topics and asked to answer them first using background knowledge and second by searching on the Web. Knowledge of a topic predicted search performance on that topic for all questions and, more importantly, for questions for which participants did not already know the answer. In terms of process, greater topic knowledge led to less time being spent on each Webpage, faster decisions to give up a line of inquiry and shorter queries being entered into the search engine. A more complete theory-led understanding of these effects would assist workers in a whole range of Web-related professions.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI '08 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery
Pages	39-48
Number of pages	10
ISBN (Electronic)	9781605580111
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357062
Publication status	Published - 2008

Access to Document

10.1145/1357054.1357062

Duggan_&_Payne,_08.pdf
© ACM, 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Duggan, G. B. and Payne, S. J., 2008. Knowledge in the head and on the web. In: CHI '08: Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM New York. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357062
Accepted author manuscript, 1 MB

Cite this

Knowledge in the head and on the web: using topic expertise to aid search. / Duggan, Geoffrey B; Payne, Stephen J.
CHI '08 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 2008. p. 39-48.

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceeding › Chapter in a published conference proceeding

@inproceedings{afc78e2eca4a41478487c10ef9589e29,

title = "Knowledge in the head and on the web: using topic expertise to aid search",

abstract = "The importance of background knowledge for effective searching on the Web is not well understood. Participants were given trivia questions on two topics and asked to answer them first using background knowledge and second by searching on the Web. Knowledge of a topic predicted search performance on that topic for all questions and, more importantly, for questions for which participants did not already know the answer. In terms of process, greater topic knowledge led to less time being spent on each Webpage, faster decisions to give up a line of inquiry and shorter queries being entered into the search engine. A more complete theory-led understanding of these effects would assist workers in a whole range of Web-related professions.",

author = "Duggan, {Geoffrey B} and Payne, {Stephen J}",

year = "2008",

doi = "10.1145/1357054.1357062",

language = "English",

pages = "39--48",

booktitle = "CHI '08 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery",

address = "USA United States",

}

TY - GEN

T1 - Knowledge in the head and on the web: using topic expertise to aid search

AU - Duggan, Geoffrey B

AU - Payne, Stephen J

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - The importance of background knowledge for effective searching on the Web is not well understood. Participants were given trivia questions on two topics and asked to answer them first using background knowledge and second by searching on the Web. Knowledge of a topic predicted search performance on that topic for all questions and, more importantly, for questions for which participants did not already know the answer. In terms of process, greater topic knowledge led to less time being spent on each Webpage, faster decisions to give up a line of inquiry and shorter queries being entered into the search engine. A more complete theory-led understanding of these effects would assist workers in a whole range of Web-related professions.

AB - The importance of background knowledge for effective searching on the Web is not well understood. Participants were given trivia questions on two topics and asked to answer them first using background knowledge and second by searching on the Web. Knowledge of a topic predicted search performance on that topic for all questions and, more importantly, for questions for which participants did not already know the answer. In terms of process, greater topic knowledge led to less time being spent on each Webpage, faster decisions to give up a line of inquiry and shorter queries being entered into the search engine. A more complete theory-led understanding of these effects would assist workers in a whole range of Web-related professions.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=57649210490&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1357054.1357062

U2 - 10.1145/1357054.1357062

DO - 10.1145/1357054.1357062

M3 - Chapter in a published conference proceeding

SP - 39

EP - 48

BT - CHI '08 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

CY - New York

ER -

Knowledge in the head and on the web: using topic expertise to aid search

Abstract

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this