Risk and Ambiguity in Information Seeking: Eye Gaze Patterns Reveal Contextual Behaviour in Dealing with Uncertainty
Information foraging connects optimal foraging theory in ecology withhow humans search for information. The theory suggests that, followingan information scent, the information seeker must optimize the tradeoffbetween exploration by repeated steps in the search space vs.exploitation, using the resou...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2016-11-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01790/full |
| _version_ | 1811259400799649792 |
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| author | Peter Wittek Ying-Hsang Liu Ying-Hsang Liu S ́andor Dara ́nyi Tom Gedeon Ik Soo Lim |
| author_facet | Peter Wittek Ying-Hsang Liu Ying-Hsang Liu S ́andor Dara ́nyi Tom Gedeon Ik Soo Lim |
| author_sort | Peter Wittek |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Information foraging connects optimal foraging theory in ecology withhow humans search for information. The theory suggests that, followingan information scent, the information seeker must optimize the tradeoffbetween exploration by repeated steps in the search space vs.exploitation, using the resources encountered. We conjecture that thistradeoff characterizes how a user deals with uncertainty and its twoaspects, risk and ambiguity in economic theory. Risk is related to theperceived quality of the actually visited patch of information, and canbe reduced by exploiting and understanding the patch to a better extent.Ambiguity, on the other hand, is the opportunity cost of having higherquality patches elsewhere in the search space. The aforementionedtradeoff depends on many attributes, including traits of the user: atthe two extreme ends of the spectrum, analytic and wholistic searchersemploy entirely different strategies. The former type focuses onexploitation first, interspersed with bouts of exploration, whereas thelatter type prefers to explore the search space first and consume later.Our findings from an eye-tracking study of experts' interactions withnovel search interfaces in the biomedical domain suggest that usertraits of cognitive styles and perceived search task difficultyare significantly correlated with eye gaze and search behaviour. Wealso demonstrate that perceived risk shifts the balance betweenexploration and exploitation in either type of users, tilting it againstvs. in favour of ambiguity minimization. Since the pattern of behaviourin information foraging is quintessentially sequential, risk andambiguity minimization cannot happen simultaneously, leading to afundamental limit on how good such a tradeoff can be. This in turnconnects information seeking with the emergent field of quantum decisiontheory. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T18:30:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2dfa883346bf403696eda126fbd439c1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T18:30:50Z |
| publishDate | 2016-11-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-2dfa883346bf403696eda126fbd439c12022-12-22T03:21:05ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782016-11-01710.3389/fpsyg.2016.01790221547Risk and Ambiguity in Information Seeking: Eye Gaze Patterns Reveal Contextual Behaviour in Dealing with UncertaintyPeter Wittek0Ying-Hsang Liu1Ying-Hsang Liu2S ́andor Dara ́nyi3Tom Gedeon4Ik Soo Lim5Barcelona Institute of Science and TechnologyCharles Sturt UniversityThe Australian National UniversityUniversity of Bor ̊asThe Australian National UniversityBangor UniversityInformation foraging connects optimal foraging theory in ecology withhow humans search for information. The theory suggests that, followingan information scent, the information seeker must optimize the tradeoffbetween exploration by repeated steps in the search space vs.exploitation, using the resources encountered. We conjecture that thistradeoff characterizes how a user deals with uncertainty and its twoaspects, risk and ambiguity in economic theory. Risk is related to theperceived quality of the actually visited patch of information, and canbe reduced by exploiting and understanding the patch to a better extent.Ambiguity, on the other hand, is the opportunity cost of having higherquality patches elsewhere in the search space. The aforementionedtradeoff depends on many attributes, including traits of the user: atthe two extreme ends of the spectrum, analytic and wholistic searchersemploy entirely different strategies. The former type focuses onexploitation first, interspersed with bouts of exploration, whereas thelatter type prefers to explore the search space first and consume later.Our findings from an eye-tracking study of experts' interactions withnovel search interfaces in the biomedical domain suggest that usertraits of cognitive styles and perceived search task difficultyare significantly correlated with eye gaze and search behaviour. Wealso demonstrate that perceived risk shifts the balance betweenexploration and exploitation in either type of users, tilting it againstvs. in favour of ambiguity minimization. Since the pattern of behaviourin information foraging is quintessentially sequential, risk andambiguity minimization cannot happen simultaneously, leading to afundamental limit on how good such a tradeoff can be. This in turnconnects information seeking with the emergent field of quantum decisiontheory.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01790/fulleye gazeinformation foragingquantum decision theoryinformation seekingcognitive styleRisk and ambiguity minimization |
| spellingShingle | Peter Wittek Ying-Hsang Liu Ying-Hsang Liu S ́andor Dara ́nyi Tom Gedeon Ik Soo Lim Risk and Ambiguity in Information Seeking: Eye Gaze Patterns Reveal Contextual Behaviour in Dealing with Uncertainty Frontiers in Psychology eye gaze information foraging quantum decision theory information seeking cognitive style Risk and ambiguity minimization |
| title | Risk and Ambiguity in Information Seeking: Eye Gaze Patterns Reveal Contextual Behaviour in Dealing with Uncertainty |
| title_full | Risk and Ambiguity in Information Seeking: Eye Gaze Patterns Reveal Contextual Behaviour in Dealing with Uncertainty |
| title_fullStr | Risk and Ambiguity in Information Seeking: Eye Gaze Patterns Reveal Contextual Behaviour in Dealing with Uncertainty |
| title_full_unstemmed | Risk and Ambiguity in Information Seeking: Eye Gaze Patterns Reveal Contextual Behaviour in Dealing with Uncertainty |
| title_short | Risk and Ambiguity in Information Seeking: Eye Gaze Patterns Reveal Contextual Behaviour in Dealing with Uncertainty |
| title_sort | risk and ambiguity in information seeking eye gaze patterns reveal contextual behaviour in dealing with uncertainty |
| topic | eye gaze information foraging quantum decision theory information seeking cognitive style Risk and ambiguity minimization |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01790/full |
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