The effect of user characteristics on search effectiveness in information retrieval

Authors:
Azzah Al-Maskari;Mark Sanderson
Affiliations:
Directorate General of Technological Education, P.O. Box: 413, Post code 100, Oman;School of Computer Science and Information Technology, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, Melbourne 3001, Victoria, Australia
Venue:
Information Processing and Management: an International Journal
Year:
2011

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Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of user characteristics (e.g. search experience and cognitive skills) on user effectiveness. A user study was conducted to investigate this effect, 56 participants completed searches for 56 topics using the TREC test collection. Results indicated that participants with search experience and high cognitive skills were more effective than those with less experience and slower perceptual abilities. However, all users rated themselves with the same level of satisfaction with the search results despite the fact they varied substantially in their effectiveness. Therefore, information retrieval evaluators should take these factors into consideration when investigating the impact of system effectiveness on user effectiveness.