Text comprehension in the process of relevance judgment: An analysis based on the Relevance Theory
Yuko Otagiri Haruki Nagata · 2009
This paper examines how information searchers comprehend the retrieved text of database records in the process of relevance judgment on the basis of Sperber and Wilson’ s Relevance Theory (RT. The protocol data obtained by the think‑aloud method from the 5 test students with real information needs on food science were analyzed according to the definition of“Relevance”in the theory： “An assumption is relevant in a context if only if it has some contextual effect in that context.” As a result this definition gives good framework for think‑aloud protocol data and three contextual effects“contextual implication” “strengthening” and“contradiction”which are shown in the RT were confirmed. And applicability of the RT to the information retrieval research was empirically shown by these results.