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Web search strategies and human individual differences: Cognitive and demographic factors, Internet attitudes, and approaches

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  • Nigel Ford
  • David Miller
  • Nicola Moss

Abstract

The research reported here was an exploratory study that sought to discover the effects of human individual differences on Web search strategy. These differences consisted of (a) study approaches, (b) cognitive and demographic features, and (c) perceptions of and preferred approaches to Web‐based information seeking. Sixty‐eight master's students used AltaVista to search for information on three assigned search topics graded in terms of complexity. Five hundred seven search queries were factor analyzed to identify relationships between the individual difference variables and Boolean and best‐match search strategies. A number of consistent patterns of relationship were found. As task complexity increased, a number of strategic shifts were also observed on the part of searchers possessing particular combinations of characteristics. A second article (published in this issue of JASIST; Ford, Miller, & Moss, 2005) presents a combined analyses of the data including a series of regression analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Nigel Ford & David Miller & Nicola Moss, 2005. "Web search strategies and human individual differences: Cognitive and demographic factors, Internet attitudes, and approaches," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 56(7), pages 741-756, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jamist:v:56:y:2005:i:7:p:741-756
    DOI: 10.1002/asi.20168
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    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Sherry Y. & Macredie, Robert, 2010. "Web-based interaction: A review of three important human factors," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 379-387.

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