Psychological relevance and information science

This article summarizes the theory of psychological relevance proposed by Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson (1986), to explicate the relevance of speech utterances to hearers in everyday conversation. The theory is then interpreted as the concept of relevance in information retrieval, and an extended example is presented. Implications of psychological relevance for research in information retrieval; evaluation of information retrieval systems; and the concepts of information, information need, and the information‐seeking process are explored. Connections of the theory to ideas in bibliometrics are also suggested. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.