The Use of Proximal Information Scent to Forage for Distal Content on the World Wide Web
Peter L. T. Pirolli · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2009
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.