Heuristics elements of information-seeking strategies and tactics: a conceptual analysis
| Date | 09 October 2017 |
| Published date | 09 October 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-11-2016-0144 |
| Pages | 1322-1342 |
| Author | Reijo Savolainen |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Heuristics elements of
information-seeking strategies
and tactics: a conceptual analysis
Reijo Savolainen
Faculty of Communication Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the picture of strategies and tactics for information
seeking and searching by focusing on the heuristic elements of such strategies and tactics.
Design/methodology/approach –A conceptual analysis of a sample of 31 pertinent investigations was
conducted to find out how researchers have approached heuristics in the above context since the 1970s.
To achieve this, the study draws on the ideas produced within the research programmes on Heuristics and
Biases, and Fast and Frugal Heuristics.
Findings –Researchers have approached the heuristic elements in three major ways. First, these elements
are defined as general level constituents of browsing strategies in particular. Second, heuristics are
approached as search tips. Third, there are examples of conceptualizations of individual heuristics.
Familiarity heuristic suggests that people tend to prefer sources that have worked well in similar situations in
the past. Recognition heuristic draws on an all-or-none distinction of the information objects, based on cues
such as information scent. Finally, representativeness heuristic is based on recalling similar instances of
events or objects and judging their typicality in terms of genres, for example.
Research limitations/implications –As the study focuses on three heuristics only, the findings cannot
be generalized to describe the use of all heuristic elements of strategiesand tactics for information seeking
and searching.
Originality/value –The study pioneers by providing an in-depth analysis of the ways in which the heuristic
elements are conceptualized in the context of information seeking and searching. The findings contribute to
the elaboration of the conceptual issues of information behavior research.
Keywords Heuristics, Information search, Strategy, Information seeking, Conceptual analysis, Tactic
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
Since the 1970s, researchers have identified a number of strategies and tactics for
information seeking and searching ( for an overview, see Savolainen, 2016). Following the
classic definitions formulated by Bates (1979b, pp. 206-207), information search tactic can be
understood as a move (or moves) made with the purpose of improving or speeding the
search in some way, while information seeking (or searching) strategy is defined as a plan
for the whole search. Thus understood, “strategic”and “tactical”are fundamental qualities
of information seeking and searching because they suggest what information is important
and what to ignore, and how to access the information that is considered important or
desirable (Hjørland, 2011, pp. 599-601). Often, such strategic and tactical judgments
incorporate heuristic elements, for example, rules of thumb that are used to facilitate the
search process. However, researchers have diverse views on what types of strategies and
tactics are heuristic and how to identify the heuristic elements. For example, Bates (1979b)
defined a number of search tactics that can be regarded as search tips with heuristic value,
while Marchionini (1995, p. 106) suggested that heuristic elements are particularly
characteristic of browsing strategies.
In information behavior research so far, the picture of the nature of heuristics has
remained somewhat vague. Often, the concept of heuristic is taken for granted, as if it were
self-explanatory. However, the issues related to heuristics are far from self-evident.
The main goal of the present study is to add conceptual clarity by examining how
researchers have approached the heuristic elements of strategies and tactics for information
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 73 No. 6, 2017
pp. 1322-1342
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-11-2016-0144
Received 30 November 2016
Revised 4 April 2017
Accepted 9 April 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
1322
JD
73,6
seeking and searching. As explained in more detail below, the above question will be
examined by concentrating on the familiarity, recognition and representativeness heuristics.
This topic is important because the study of the heuristic elements enables a more nuanced
picture of the ways in which people identify, select and access information sources
particularly in cases in which the information-seeking process is constrained by the lack of
time and cognitive overload.
In general, heuristics can be understood as decision-making strategies derived from
experience with similar problems, using readily accessible, though loosely applicable,
information to problem solving, learning, or discovery (Mousavi and Gigerenzer, 2014, p. 1673).
From this perspective, heuristics are something akin tostrategies that people useconsciously
and deliberately in order to simplify judgmentaltasks that would otherwise be too difficult to
solve (Gilovich and Griffin, 2002, pp. 3-4). However, heuristics can also be used unconsciously.
This approachis often referredto as intuition: decisionmakers sense what todo without being
able to explain why (Mousavi and Gigerenzer, 2014, p. 1673).
Even though heuristics may not guarantee an optimal solution, they can facilitate
information seeking. In real-world contexts people tend not to invest much time and energy
in order to plan and execute their searches systematically. Instead, they often behave
“irrationally”by taking heuristic shortcuts (Pharo and Järvelin, 2006, pp. 230-231). Empirical
support for this assumption has been received from studies examining consumer
information seeking on the internet. Sillence and associates (2007) demonstrated that
consumers first engaged in rapid heuristic processing of information. Within the first few
minutes of interaction they sifted information, quickly recognizing and rejecting general
portals and sales sites and sites they did not trust, primarily on the basis of design features
affecting the “look and feel”of a site. Ylikoski (2005, p. 189) found that among consumers,
heuristically oriented search methods such as chaining, browsing, and brief search
accounted about 64 percent of online search events, while the proportion of events
indicating systematic (analytic) search efforts was about 36 percent.
The above examples suggest that heuristics can occupy a significant role in information
seeking.On the other hand, information searchers´preferencefor heuristic approaches may be
associated with the “cognitive miser”metaphor. It suggests, perhaps unfortunately, that
heuristics are theproducts of lazy and inattentiveminds. The distinction between systematic
(analytic) and heuristic information seeking and processing is not new. For example,
Chaiken (1980) proposed that when processing information systematically, individuals exert
considerable cognitive effort andactively attempt to comprehend and evaluate the message’s
arguments. Conversely, when processing information heuristically, individuals exert
comparably little effort, rely on more accessible information, and select information sources
on the basis of their identity or other non-content cues. Chaiken (1980, p. 752) concluded that
heuristic processing is more likely to occur with low issue involvement, low perceived
capacity to process information, or when an individual does not perceive more
in-depth processing to be of much consequence. However, heuristic information searching
may not be inferiorto analytic information processing because heuristics can be helpfulwhen
there is a needto find quickly and still effectively enough information by makinguse of simple
methods which have worked in similar situations in the past (Marsh, 2002, pp. 49-50).
The growing supplyof information particularlyfrom the internet often necessitatesthe use of
heuristics in order to concentrate on the most pertinent items.
To examine the above issues in greater detail, a conceptual analysis was made by
drawing on the ideas developed within two prominent research programmes, that is,
Heuristics and Biases (HB), and Fast and Frugal Heuristics (FFH). These programmes
examine heuristics in contexts in which decision makers make judgments under
uncertainty. The above research approaches were chosen as a point of departure because
they are generic enough for the study of heuristic elements in particular domains such as
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Conceptual
analysis
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