Exploring the effects of interactive interfaces on user search behaviour

Interactive information retrieval (IIR) is a user-centered approach to information seeking and retrieval. In this paradigm, the search process is not confined to a single query and a static set of results. Instead, it emphasises the active involvement of users in refining their information needs, iteratively modifying queries, and exploring...

On the Effects of Automatically Generated Adjunct Questions for Search as Learning

Actively engaging learners with learning materials has been shown to be very important in the Search as Learning (SAL) setting. One active reading strategy relies on asking so-called adjunct questions, i.e., manually curated questions geared towards essential concepts of the target material. However, manual question creation is impractical...

Hear Me Out: A Study on the Use of the Voice Modality for Crowdsourced Relevance Assessments

The creation of relevance assessments by human assessors (often nowadays crowdworkers) is a vital step when building IR test collections. Prior works have investigated assessor quality & behaviour, and tooling to support assessors in their task. We have few insights though into the impact of a document's presentation modality on assessor...

Viewpoint Diversity in Search Results

Adverse phenomena such as the search engine manipulation effect (SEME), where web search users change their attitude on a topic following whatever most highly-ranked search results promote, represent crucial challenges for research and industry. However, the current lack of automatic methods to comprehensively measure or increase viewpoint...

A many-analysts approach to the relation between religiosity and well-being

The relation between religiosity and well-being is one of the most researched topics in the psychology of religion, yet the directionality and robustness of the effect remains debated. Here, we adopted a many-analysts approach to assess the robustness of this relation based on a new cross-cultural dataset ((Formula presented.) participants...

Users and Contemporary SERPs: A (Re-)Investigation: Examining User Interactions and Experiences

The Search Engine Results Page (SERP) has evolved significantly over the last two decades, moving away from the simple ten blue links paradigm to considerably more complex presentations that contain results from multiple verticals and granularities of textual information. Prior works have investigated how user interactions on the SERP are...

Note the Highlight: Incorporating Active Reading Tools in a Search as Learning Environment

Active reading strategies - -such as content annotations (through the use of highlighting and note-taking, for example) - -have been shown to yield improvements to a learner's knowledge and understanding of the topic being explored. This has been especially notable in long and complex learning endeavours. With web search engines nowadays used...

Incorporating Widget Positioning in Interaction Models of Search Behaviour

Models developed to simulate user interactions with search interfaces typically do not consider the visual layout and presentation of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). In particular, the position and size of interfacewidgets ---such as entity cards and query suggestions---are usually considered a negligible constant. In contrast, in this work...

How Do Active Reading Strategies Affect Learning Outcomes in Web Search?

Prior work in education research has shown that various active reading strategies, notably highlighting and note-taking, benefit learning outcomes. Most of these findings are based on observational studies where learners learn from a single document. In a Search as Learning (SAL) context where learners have to iteratively scan and explore a...

Searching to Learn with Instructional Scaffolding

Web search engines are today considered to be the primary tool to assist and empower learners in finding information relevant to their learning goals- be it learning something new, improving their existing skills, or just fulfilling a curiosity. While several approaches for improving search engines for the learning scenario have been proposed...

The stratified significance of a historic facade as a basis for a more durable conservation approach

In heritage conservation, a gap is often observed between the theory of conservation as a durable process that aims at the preservation of a historic building and the practice of restoration as a single intervention that aims at a fast and convincing result. This paper describes the proposed approach for the conservation of the main façade of...