• Journal of the Korean Society for information Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.29-44
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to explore whether the concept of amount of invested mental effort (AIME) developed in the field of educational psychology can help explain why people put so little effort into online searching. In this experimental study, two information retrieval systems - a web search engine and a university library system - were used to make a comparison. The data were collected from 15 undergraduate students through background questionnaires, think-aloud protocols, search logs, post-search questionnaires, and post-task interviews. The findings indicate that perception of the web's "easy-ness" and high levels of self confidence in searching capability led the subjects to put less effort into web searching than they do into library system searching. In addition, the perceived difficulty of search task influenced the extent of mental effort invested. The AIME proved a useful framework for understanding search behavior and user experience for both web search engines and library systems.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.119-138
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• 2002

This study examines the effects of the judgment of information quality and cognitive authority on Web searching behavior. Sixteen scholars from diverse disciplines participated in the experiments, and the data were collected combining search logs, think-aloud during the searches, and post-search interviews in the laboratory setting. The results identified two distinct kinds of judgment, predictive judgment and evaluative judgment. The facets of judgment and criteria used for making Judgments of quality and authority were analyzed associated with the types of task, status of users, and discipline areas of users.