Information as Process: The Difference Between Corroborating Evidence and 'Information' in Humanistic Research Domains

Abstract The article reports the results of a non-randomized study of 45 history Ph.D. students, and discusses the results in terms of the theory of knowledge structure and the modification of knowledge structure due to “information” discussed in Cole (Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 45, 465–476, 1994). In the study, the Ph.D. students answered questions about the circumstances surrounding recent information events—events which resulted in the Ph.D. students becoming informed while reading for their thesis. Using the grounded theory methodology of Glaser and Strauss (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1967), patterns of cognitive activity during an information process were observed, and a model of what an information process may be like for the history Ph.D. students interviewed is proposed based on an analysis of these similarities. The model of the information process is made up of five stages, which happen one after the other, but which may be separated by long periods of time. Associated with these stages are two different types of information seeking behaviour: unconscious-unfocused and conscious-focused.

[1]  Lynn Westbrook,et al.  User Needs: A Synthesis and Analysis of Current Theories for the Practitioner. , 1993 .

[2]  Donald O. Case,et al.  Conceptual Organization and Retrieval of Text by Historians: The Role of Memory and Metaphor. , 1991 .

[3]  Peder J. Johnson,et al.  Cognitive Science: The Science of Intelligent Systems , 1994 .

[4]  W. Kintsch,et al.  Strategies of discourse comprehension , 1983 .

[5]  U. Neisser.  Cognitive Psychology. (Book Reviews: Cognition and Reality. Principles and Implications of Cognitive Psychology) , 1976 .

[6]  Ruth C. T. Morris.  Toward a user-centered information service , 1994 .

[7]  Anselm L. Strauss,et al.  Qualitative Analysis For Social Scientists , 1987 .

[8]  Donald M. MacKay,et al.  Information, mechanism and meaning , 1969 .

[9]  Carol Collier Kuhlthau,et al.  Validating a Model of the Search Process: A Comparison of Academic, Public and School Library Users. , 1990 .

[10]  Charles Cole.  Operationalizing the notion of information as a subjective construct , 1994 .

[11]  J. Fodor.  The Modularity of mind. An essay on faculty psychology , 1986 .

[12]  A. Strauss,et al.  Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. , 1992 .

[13]  Carol Collier Kuhlthau,et al.  Seeking Meaning: a process approach to library and information services" Ablex Publishing , 2003 .

[14]  Marcia J. Bates,et al.  A profile of end‐user searching behavior by humanities scholars: The Getty Online Searching Project Report No. 2 , 1993 .

[15]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  Cognitive Perspectives of Information Retrieval Interaction: Elements of a Cognitive IR Theory , 1996, J. Documentation.

[16]  Sue Stone,et al.  Humanities scholars: Information Needs and Uses , 1982, J. Documentation.

[17]  Jack D. Glazier,et al.  Qualitative Research in Information Management , 1992 .

[18]  Peter Ingwersen,et al.  Information Retrieval Interaction , 1992 .

[19]  Carol Collier Kuhlthau.  Inside the Search Process: Information Seeking from the User's Perspective. , 1991 .

[20]  D. Swinney.  Lexical access during sentence comprehension: (Re)consideration of context effects , 1979 .

[21]  Brenda Dervin,et al.  Measuring Aspects of Information Seeking: A Test of a Quantitative/Qualitative Methodology , 1982 .

[22]  A. Strauss,et al.  The discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research aldine de gruyter , 1968 .

[23]  Patrick Henry Winston,et al.  The psychology of computer vision , 1976, Pattern Recognit..

[24]  W. Kintsch.  The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: a construction-integration model. , 1988, Psychological review.

[25]  B. C. Brookes.  The foundations of information science. Part I. Philosophical aspects , 1980 .

[26]  B. C. Brookes.  The foundations of information science , 1980 .

[27]  Nicholas J. Belkin,et al.  The cognitive viewpoint in information science , 1990, J. Inf. Sci..

[28]  Michael K. Buckland,et al.  Information as Thing , 1991 .

[29]  W. Kintsch,et al.  Context effects in word identification , 1985 .

[30]  Brenda Dervin,et al.  From the mind’s eye of the user: The sense-making qualitative-quantitative methodology. , 1992 .

[31]  B. Dervin,et al.  Neutral Questioning: A New Approach to the Reference Interview. , 1986 .

[32]  M. D. Mey,et al.  The Cognitive Paradigm: Cognitive Science, a Newly Explored Approach to the Study of Cognition Applied in an Analysis of Science and Scientific Knowledge , 1982 .

[33]  J. Gibson.  The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[34]  Allen Newell,et al.  Computer science as empirical inquiry: symbols and search , 1976, CACM.

[35]  Marvin Minsky,et al.  A framework for representing knowledge , 1974 .

[36]  Steven J. Taylor.  Introduction to qualitative research methods : the search for meanings / by Steven J. Taylor, Robert Bogdan , 1984 .

[37]  D. Ellis.  Modeling the Information-Seeking Patterns of Academic Researchers: A Grounded Theory Approach , 1993, The Library Quarterly.

[38]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Information accretion and reduction in text processing: Inferences , 1993 .

[39]  Amanda Spink,et al.  Interaction with Information Retrieval Systems: Reflections on Feedback. , 1993 .

[40]  Lawrence E. Melamed,et al.  Perception: A Cognitive-Stage Approach , 1976 .

[41]  B. Dervin,et al.  Information needs and uses. , 1986 .