Abstract
This paper describes an experiment that uses Concurrent Think-Aloud protocol (CTA) and person-to-person interviews to map searching behaviors and knowledge flows during search sessions. The findings are: (1) the most used searching strategy during exploratory searches was the “Metacognitive Domain”; and (2) online searching experts have a fair ability to deal with ideas prompted by browsing the search results. The main contributions of this research lie in the understanding of the process in which people find, access, decide what content is useful and apply online data to their different information needs.
Keywords
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- 1.
Set of terms used to reformulate queries within a session, determined by a user’s decision-making process regarding whether to include, exclude, modify or keep the set of terms.
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A set of implemented user search strategies, which determine a Web search pattern.
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Lookup searches return discrete and well-structured objects such as numbers, names, short statements, or specific files of text or other media.
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Consists of learners using Web search engines as a technology to drive their learning process.
References
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Appendices
List of Online Information Searching Strategies’ Indicators
Behavioral (Behav)
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Control
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C1: Using the most familiar or known search engine in the first place.
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C2: Searching by typing the name of the search engine on the browser.
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C3: Entering the name of the website on the search engine.
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C4: Entering the name of the website on the address bar.
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C5: Using the “home” button to return to the beginning of the search.
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C6: Using the “next” and “previous” buttons of the browser.
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C7: Using Boolean logic operators for narrowing/widening the search parameters.
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C8: Doing a customized search with the help of the images, videos, maps, and other similar features of the search engine.
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C9: Utilizing the advanced search options of images, videos, maps, and other similar features of the search engine.
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C10: Utilizing the advanced search options of the search engine.
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Disorientation
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D1: Giving up in the case of failure to find an answer.
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D2: Using search terms that are not given in the search task.
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D3: Not having any idea about what to do when doing an Internet search.
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D4: Feeling bad in the case of failure to retrieve the desired information.
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Procedural (Proced)
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Trial and Error
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TE1: Modifying the keywords.
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TE2: Using different search engines.
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TE3: Opening different websites.
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Problem-Solving
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PS1: Doing one’s best to resolve any problem that occurs during a search.
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PS2: Trying to find out the possible reasons for any problem that occurs during a search.
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Metacognitive (Metacog)
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Purposeful Thinking
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PT1: Narrowing down the searching field (subject).
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PT2: Accessing additional websites from a main website.
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PT3: Simultaneous information searching from different sources.
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PT4: Doing in-site search.
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Select Main Ideas
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SMI1: Directly opening a website that is known to be relevant to a given search task.
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SMI2: Typing specific terms about the search task.
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SMI3: Following the search suggestions of the search engine.
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SMI4: Following the outputs of in-site search.
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SMI5: Looking through the hyperlinks provided on a website.
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SMI6: Looking through the titles on a website.
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SMI7: Keeping an account of the information relevant to the search task found on a website.
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SMI8: Looking for specific words in a website by means of Ctrl + F.
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Evaluation
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E1: Evaluating the relationships between the retrieved pieces of information.
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E2: Comparing and contrasting the pieces of information retrieved from different websites.
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E3: Determining whether a piece of information from a website is worth referencing.
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E4: Assessing how to combine and present the data gathered from the Web.
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Users’ Searching Behavior Tables
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Tibau, M., Siqueira, S.W.M., Nunes, B.P. (2021). Think-Aloud Exploratory Search: Understanding Search Behaviors and Knowledge Flows. In: Visvizi, A., Lytras, M.D., Aljohani, N.R. (eds) Research and Innovation Forum 2020. RIIFORUM 2020. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62066-0_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62066-0_23
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