Rethinking the Cost of Information Search Behavior
Yinglong Zhang, Jacek Gwizdka · 2016
In this paper, we present a cognitive-economic approach to examining the cost in information search. Unlike previous studies on economic models, we calculated the cost in information search based on participants' eye-tracking data as well as their behavioral data, such as query formulation, search task duration, SERP and web page visits. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we explored a possible latent factor structure of variables representing the cost in information search. Our results indicated that the cost of information seeking could be associated with two distinct aspects of search, exploratory and validation processes.