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Introduction to frameworks and paradigms?

INFO 310

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Frameworks

• Traditional/ Physical• Social/ Psychological• User oriented• Problem oriented• Cognitive viewpoint• Sensemaking• Social

constructionismHumanInformationBehavior

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Frameworks and paradigms

• System or physical paradigm• Social/ psychological view

•user oriented paradigm• Cognitive view• Sensemaking• Social constructionism

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The system or physical paradigm

• Objective view of information• Users seen as mechanistic and passive• User behavior predicted according to general

variables - age, income• Atomistic - focus on user’s interaction with

system; point of contact only• focus on external behaviors; contact with

system is indication of need and behavior• individuality regarded as chaotic• quantitative

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Objective Information

• information has constant meaning• a commodity or thing. • can be transported• reflects an absolute

correspondence with reality– It will convey the same meaning to all

users.

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Mechanistic Passive Users • Users are regarded as information

processing systems• Being informed or benefiting from

information is assumed to result directly from document delivery with no intervening user behaviour

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Transituationality

• Users with similar characteristics in similar situations will react in similar ways, use information similarly and make similar decisions.

• The information behavior of users is described in ways that apply across situations.

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Atomistic View of Experience

• The focus is on user behaviour at the point of intersection with the information system

• The moment of contact and exchange

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External Behavior

• Very concrete• Contact with a system is the basic

indicator of information need• Focus on what can be observed as

overt behaviour

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Chaotic Individuality

• Focus on individual information behavior will cause too much variation

• Systems cannot accommodate individual interpretation

• Individuality means chaos and prevents systematic research

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Sociological and psychological approaches

• Sociological approach to information behavior 60’s...– views the individual user of

information systems as part of a complex of other systems all of which affect the person’s information behavior

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Sociological and psychological approaches

– factors outside the information system ought to be studied if we are to interpret information behavior accurately• the person’s social situation• the individual’s problems• the use to which the information will be

put

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Sociological and psychological approaches

• Psychological approach– reinforces the sociological

perspectives– takes account of the user’s internal

state as it interacts with the external factors identified by the sociological approach

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User oriented paradigm• subjective information• constructivist active user• situationality• wholistic views of experience• internal cognitions• systematic individuality• qualitative research

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Subjective information

• Information does not transmit constant meaning

• Information users interpret information and create sense or meaning in accordance with their unique model or image of the world

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Constructivist Active Users

• The user constructs need out of situations and is actively involved in information transfer

• The user undertakes activities that will induce sensemaking

• The user is actively involved from the time the information problem arises to the point of problem resolution

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Situationality

• An individual’s responsiveness to information is governed by a range of variables that are unique to the individual and to the information problem that the individual is engaging

• Individuals operate from different centres at different times

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Wholistic View of Experience

• A user’s behavior is studied in terms of those factors that lead to an encounter with an information system and the consequences of such an encounter

• A broader view of information behaviour from the time need arises to when it no longer exists

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Internal Cognitions

• Acknowledges the premise that what is going on inside a person’s mind (the individual’s model of the world) will shape the way information is interpreted and used

• Interested in what people think as well as what they do when they engage in information behavior

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Systematic Individuality

• The complexity of individuality can be addressed in a way that is consistent with scientific investigation.

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Problem orientation

• A change in perception– away from seeing information as only

about something– towards seeing information as having

an effect on something– concentrating on problems rather

than questions

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Problem dimensions

• A focus on problems• continuum from questions to problems to

sensemaking

• Problems• the initial state• the goal state• the processes - mental physical or

perceptual that move the user from initial state to goal state

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A problem orientation (Saracevic, 1988)

• no such thing as information need in the abstract but rather circumstances that lead to information behavior

• there is more to a question than the words expressing it

• viewing the problem behind the question rather than the information need is central to the information retrieval interaction

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A problem orientation (Saracevic, 1988)

Internal and cognitive aspects

The problemState or problemSpace

• Problem• Intent• Internal knowledge state• Public knowledge expectation

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The cognitive view…(B.C. Brookes)

• Any processing of information - whether perceptual or symbolic - is mediated by a system of categories or concepts, which, for the processing device, are a model of its world (De Mey)

K[s] + i = k[s + s]

Knowledgestructure Information

Modified knowledgestructure

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The cognitive view (Ingwersen)

The world model consists of knowledge structures. These are determined by the individual and social/ collective experiences, education and training etc.

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Sensemaking

Situation Uses(Helps)

Gap faced

Gap bridged

Questions answered, ideasformed, resourcesobtained

Strategies usedinfo values sought

DiscontinuityCondition

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Sensemaking moment

Situation

Gap Use (Help)

Circlingtheexperience

Each momentis potentially asensemaking moment

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Social Constructionism• Essential premise

– The primary human reality is about people in conversation

– communication and conversation are used to structure and organize social reality

– focus on public and social not private and subjective

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Social contructionism

• Emphasizes the negotiation of meaning– reality construction through discourse– there is no versionless reality– rejects monologism and replaces this

with dialogism– the most important things take place in

interaction, in discursive practices between people not within the individual cut off from his or her social relationships

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Social constructionism• Assumes that we construct

versions of reality between ourselves

• Knowledge is something people do together rather than an individual possession