Information-gathering Strategies Research Articles

Recherche d'information. Partie II : « Utilité sociale de la confirmation d'hypothèse»

Summary : Social value of hypothesis confirmation. In a first paper (Dardenne, Leyens and Yzerbyt, 1997), we presented studies on information gathering strategies and hypothesis confirmation in the field of social psychology. In this second paper, we suggest that confirmatory strategies should be investigated according to the goals of the interaction. Social perception is too often seen as driven by an accuracy goal. In addition, traditional studies are conducted without interpersonal interaction, as if perception was aimed at solving an intellectual problem. This focus on interaction and a diversity of goals sheds a new light on the social perceiver. It appears that hypothesis confirmation has important social functions. Key words : information gathering, hypothesis confirmation, goals of social interaction, social cognition.

A probabilistic reasoning model: Formulation and control strategy

It has been recognized that past experiences of a decision maker often plays a pivotal role in solving new problem instances. Therefore, the ability to model human reasoning processes has become an important subject of research in recent years. In many applications, the reasoning process must deal with uncertainty inherent in the problem domain. This research addresses the issue of supporting the model formulation and data acquisition processes for situations that (i) operate under uncertain conditions, and (ii) utilize evidential information that is gathered in stages. A theoretical framework is presented for the probabilistic formulation of the reasoning process that incorporates past experiences. The model is validated by testing its performance on simulated data, and is shown to work well when a sufficiently large number of cases are available for estimating probabilities. The probabilistic reasoning system can revise beliefs in an intuitively appealing and theoretically sound manner when information is acquired in an incremental fashion. Two dynamic information gathering strategies are discussed for such a reasoning system, one using information theoretic techniques, and the other using decision theoretic techniques.

When pigeons home alone: does flocking have a navigational function?

Using the flocking tendencies of homing pigeons ( Columba livia ) in flight, a first attempt was made to test directly the hypothesis that group movement may have a navigational function. We manipulated the potential advantage of transfer of navigational information by releasing pairs of homing pigeons in which none, one or both of the birds had previously been released at sites about 25 km from the home loft (while overall flying experience was standardized). Contrary to our prediction, locally naive birds did not follow experienced birds home, whereas experienced birds, with less navigational need to flock, were generally still paired on arrival home. Pairs in which both birds were locally naive also tended not to home together. Under the conditions of our experiment, the tendency to fly together appeared not to have a navigational function. However, and contrary to recent conclusions in the literature, our results do suggest that the initial flight behaviour of birds at novel release sites may constitute a navigational information gathering strategy that is sufficiently important to over-ride gregarious tendencies when the two conflict.

STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE LIBRARY SERVICE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX: PRACTICAL QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE RESEARCH IN AN ACADEMIC LIBRARY

This paper describes quantitative and qualitative research undertaken at the University of Sussex Library. The research was concerned to investigate the behaviour and motivations that led Library users to give puzzling responses in a user survey into book availability. The responses concerned the Library's Reserve Collection of key course texts. Hence the paper firstly sets out to describe the user survey, and then goes on to give an account of the qualitative research methodology employed to look beyond the survey results. This methodology involved semi‐structured interviews with students and tutors, which were analysed with the help of the software package QSR NUD*1st. The research uncovered interesting and useful information relating to the way Library users approach the Library service, a summary of which is included in the paper. The research methodology was found to be a valuable addition to the information gathering strategies of Library management, revealing patterns of user attitudes that are difficult if not impossible to access using traditional survey techniques alone.

A comparison of three information gathering strategies in DAI systems under noisy conditions

This paper investigates a problem of task allocation in Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) systems, where a coordinator allocates tasks among multiple agents in an optimal manner. In making the task allocation, the coordinator needs to understand the preference orders of the agents for the different task bundles. The coordinator does this by adopting an information acquisition strategy that leads to an optimal system welfare. Three different information acquisition strategies are investigated here. The strategies are compared in a noisy environment for the quality of information they provide in terms of the deviation from optimal system welfare. Copyright 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd

Information sources for virtual reality: a research guide

From the Publisher: This reference identifies information resources concerning virtual reality and provides detailed instruction on how to use these resources in an effective research strategy. Most of the chapters overview particular types of information sources, such as periodical and citation indexes, conference proceedings, technical reports, dissertations, and monographs. The chapters explain how to use these tools to gather information about virtual reality, and discussions of key resources are always placed in the larger context of information-gathering strategies specific to the field. Most of the resources are available in large public and academic libraries. The volume does not presuppose sophisticated technical knowledge of libraries, and it is written for the student and general researcher. The volume concludes with a set of algorithms that can be used to locate resources in the most typical searches, and a list of producers and publishers of related material.

Influence of experience on information-gathering strategies.

Decision making and situation understanding are related to information-gathering strategies used by experienced, intermediate, and novice decision makers. Differences according to level of experience were predicted for seven strategies. These predictions were tested in a process-tracing experiment employing a submarine search scenario. The subjects were three groups of naval officers ranging in experience from former commanding officers to students in the first course for potential submarine officers. Differences were found among the groups in use of information-gathering strategies, situation understanding, and decision accuracy. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of experience on the decision process and implications for decision aiding

Information Issues in Model Specification

This paper explores the tradeoffs and information issues in model specification, i.e., choosing the appropriate level of detail and precision of decision support models. For many real-time and distributed decision problems, decision-makers face a wide spectrum of information gathering choices that vary in the amount and quality of information as well as their associated costs and delays. Modeling these problems raises several operational and strategic questions including: • how much and what type of information to acquire before making a decision. • what protocol to use for exchanging information among multiple decision-makers. • what organization and information structure (e.g., centralized, coordinated, distributed) to use for effective information sharing and decision-making. We highlight the modeling issues and tradeoffs using examples from production planning, distributed processing, and network routing, and draw upon research in diverse fields, including information economics and game theory, knowledge logic in computer science, and distributed computation, to obtain model specification insights. Our discussions emphasize and illustrate two main model specification themes. First, acquiring additional information often has diminishing returns (in terms of the quality of decisions suggested by the model); therefore, an imprecise model based on partial information might be more appropriate than using a detailed and accurate model that identifies ‘optimal’ decisions. Concepts from information economics and team theory provide a framework for analyzing this tradeoff. We also briefly discuss some heuristic methods to identify effective information gathering strategies. Our second theme applies to systems consisting of several decision-makers who make interdependent decisions. In this context, the decision model for each agent must be based on an understanding of what information to exchange, how frequently, and what protocol to use for exchanging information. We illustrate how complete information sharing among distributed decision-makers might even be impossible because of a possible dead-lock in decision-making. This game-theoretic phenomenon has implications for designing the organization structure, information systems, and communication protocols to support multi-agent decision-making.

Just keeping current entails ingenuity, resourcefulness, and improvisation (R&D)

Strategies for information gathering that go beyond just reading journals and attending conferences are examined. Among them are the use of electronic mail, visiting other companies, circulating reports within the company, and communicating with marketing departments. The practice of bootlegging time, equipment, and materials to keep a line of research out of the internal information flow, at least temporarily, because of a special insight into and conviction about the value of a field (even if it happens to be at variance with what top managers may see as important) is discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Comparing Information-Gathering Strategies of Medical Students and Physicians in Diagnosing Simulated Medical Cases. Palchik NS, Wolf FM, Cassidy JT, et al. Academic Medicine 65:107-113, 1990.

Comparing Information-Gathering Strategies of Medical Students and Physicians in Diagnosing Simulated Medical Cases. Palchik NS, Wolf FM, Cassidy JT, et al. Academic Medicine 65:107-113, 1990.

Diagnostic and confirmation strategies in trait hypothesis testing.

The role of diagnostic and confirmation strategies in trait hypothesis testing is examined. The present studies integrate theoretical and empirical work on qualitative differences among traits with the hypothesis-testing literature. Ss tested trait hypotheses from 2 hierarchically restrictive trait dimensions: introversion-extraversion and honesty-dishonesty. In Study 1, Ss generated questions to test trait hypotheses, and diagnosticity was theoretically defined (e.g., questions associated with nonrestrictive ends of trait dimensions). In Study 2, Ss selected questions from an experimenter-provided list in which diagnosticity was empirically denned. In Study 3, Ss chose between 2 equally diagnostic questions. In each of the studies, Ss showed a primary preference for diagnostic information and a secondary preference for confirmatory information. Ss' preference for diagnostic information suggests that they prefer to ask the most informative questions. The explanation for the confirmation bias is less obvious, and possible reasons for this effect are discussed. Many researchers within social psychology (eg., Snyder, 1981; Snyder & Campbell, 1980; Snyder & Swann, 1978; Swann & Giuliano, 1987; Trope & Bassok, 1982,1983; Trope, Bassok, & Alon, 1 984) have investigated the information-gathering strategies that lay interviewers use in testing trait hypotheses about other people (e.g., Is Fred an extravert?)- This research has revealed two major information-gathering strategies that subjects use when testing trait hypotheses: a confirmation strategy and a diagnostic strategy. However, there has been considerable debate within this literature regarding the relative importance of each strategy. The present research is designed to examine the role of both confirmation and diagnostic strategies in trait hypothesis testing.

Comparing information-gathering strategies of medical students and physicians in diagnosing simulated medical cases

Using a broad range of written patient management problems (PMPs), this study examined (1) how each of three medical information-gathering processes (history-taking, physical examination, and diagnostic studies) influenced 175 second-year medical students' formulations of the differential (i.e., plausible) and the principal (i.e., most probable) diagnoses for each of 14 PMPs, and (2) the extent to which these results paralleled the emphases that experienced clinicians placed on these same information-gathering processes regarding each of the same PMPs. The results suggest that in ten of the 14 PMPs the students appeared to rely on specific information-gathering strategies in formulating their diagnoses, and that both similarities and differences existed between the levels of emphasis placed by the students and physicians on each of the three processes. In general, the physicians placed greater emphasis on the importance of the history, whereas the students relied more on diagnostic studies. These variations have implications for selecting medical problems for purposes of instruction and evaluation of students.

Testing the Waters

Individuals often fail to cooperate because they are not sufficiently reassured that others involved share their desire for reciprocal cooperation. Such situations may be seen as Assurance games. The existing literature fails to examine the problems posed by lack of information about others' preferences, either assuming that information is perfect, or that it may be made perfect by mutual verbal reassurances. This article shows that in sequential public goods supergames, players with Assurance preferences may gather information about others' preferences from their game moves, and that it may pay them to take risks of short-term losses in order to do so. The most efficient information-gathering strategy for such a player is cooperation. The model helps us understand why players of Assurance often appear to take risks in order to “test the waters” with cooperative moves, and why the problem posed for collective action is sometimes successfully resolved.

A model of decision-making with sequential information-acquisition (part 2)

While most real-life decision are of necessity made with less than perfect information, there is usually some opportunity to acquire additional information regarding the problem at hand before a final decision is made. It is, of course, the recognition of this fact which has led to the importance now attached to the field of Decision Support Systems. On the other hand, the formal analysis of the sort of decision problem for which Decision Support Systems can be useful appears to have lagged behind the developments in applications. In this paper we develope a model of decision-making in which there is available a variety of informational sources (experiments) which can reduce (though generally not eliminate) the uncertainty associated with the final decision. Since the informational sources are available only at some cost (either monetarily or in terms of time, or both), the decision-maker must solve two conceptually distinct problems: (1) developing an optimal information-gathering strategy, and (2) developing an optimal final decision strategy, conditional upon the information obtained during the information-gathering process. A theoretical framework is developed here for the analysis of this general problem, and fairly complete solutions are obtained for some interesting special cases; most notably the computer file search problem.

A model of decision-making with sequential information-acquisition (Part 1)

While most real-life decisions are of necessity made with less than perfect information, there is usually some opportunity to acquire additional information regarding the problem at hand before a final decision is made. It is, of course, the recognition of this fact which has led to the importance now attached to the field of Decision Support Systems. On the other hand, the formal analysis of the sort of decision problem for which Decision Support Systems can be useful appears to have lagged behind the developments in applications. In this paper we develop a model of decision-making in which there is available a variety of informational sources (experiments) which can reduce (though generally not eliminate) the uncertainty associated with the final decisions. Since the informational sources are available only at some cost (either monetarily or in terms of time, or both), the decision-maker must solve two conceptually distinct problems: (1) developing an optimal information-gathering strategy, and (2) developing an optimal final decision strategy, conditional upon the information obtained during the information-gathering process. A theoretical framework is developed here for the analysis of this general problem, and fairly complete solutions are obtained for some interesting special cases; most notably the computer file search problem.

Information-gathering processes: Diagnosticity, hypothesis-confirmatory strategies, and perceived hypothesis confirmation

Recent research has investigated the information-gathering strategies that people employ as they attempt to test hypotheses. Three such strategies of information seeking were examined. Two kinds of hypothesis-confirmation strategies were considered. The first of these concerned evidence being sought to the extent that it is more likely under the hypothesis being tested than under the alternative. The second kind of hypothesis-confirmation strategy refers to the tendency to ask questions that will have the effect of making the hypothesis under test appear to be true. In addition, a third kind of strategy is a diagnosing strategy under which people prefer evidence that is most differentially probable under the hypothesis and the alternative. Important changes in methodology from past work were made, and the data supported a predominant diagnosing strategy and a less significant, but nonetheless strong and consistent, tendency to ask hypothesis-confirming questions. In addition, subjects' choice of questions made it likely that they would perceive as confirmed the specific hypotheses they were testing. This occurred even though the questions employed were not constraining. Discussion involves the strategies of information gathering and the reasons underlying them as well as the implications of these strategies for the inferences people make about their predictive abilities.

Marketing U.S. Government depository libraries: Preliminary report on a public awareness campaign in New England

The article describes an ongoing public awareness campaign for federal depository libraries in New England designed by the Government Publications Librarians of New England (GPLNE) in collaboration with the Marketing Department of the United States Government Printing Office. This marketing effort is aimed at professional people in non-profit organizations and small businesses concerned with energy, the environment, health, housing, consumer, and other public interests. Results of a telephone survey and in-depth interviews of persons in the target audience are discussed. These suggest that people in this population are regular users of government publications but are unaware of depository libraries and do not rely on libraries as their main sources for government-generated information. However, they appear willing to try different information-gathering strategies and might use depositories if they were informed about collections and services, especially services which can be used without travelling to a library. Components of the marketing campaign are described. The plan emphasizes the free information services that depositories offer and the problem-solving skills of librarians.

Spatial behaviour of cats in cue-controlled environments.

Two groups of six cats were subjected to a spatial learning task in cross-mazes that differed only in the spatial relationship between the goal and the single available visual cue. When this cue was remote from the goal (“mapping situation”), the cats did not need more testing days to reach the learning criterion than when it was above the goal (“guidance situation”). Additional behavioural data gave evidence of two information-gathering strategies within each group: the first consisted of taking the relevant information from the starting point; the second was to choose the correct path from the central choice-point. These strategies were discussed in the light of O'Keefe and Nadel's theory (1978) concerning two spatial behaviours, mapping and route-following. The results of a second experiment showed that the cats subjected to the mapping situation were markedly less affected than those subjected to the guidance situation by a delay introduced between the moment when the relevant cue was still available and the moment when the subjects were allowed to run to the goal. In a third experiment, it was shown that only cats that were seen as choosing their path from the starting point during learning (Experiment 1) succeeded in using short-cuts: subjects that chose from the central choicepoint needed to pass through this place when a shorter path was available. These results show that the processes involved in spatial behaviours may be characterized by taking into account some of the behavioural components. Furthermore, the properties of these processes can be assessed with additional experiments, such as delayed-reaction tasks and short-cutting tests.

Information-gathering and attentional strategies: individual differences in medical students.

Information-gathering in medical students was investigated by means of a new system for classifying the questions asked in the clinical interview. The students interviewed two patients of the same age and sex at a clinic for a chronic condition. Analysis of video tapes of these interviews revealed wide variation among the students in their use of five types of questions. It was hypothesized that this variation could be traced to individual differences in four attentional strategies. This hypothesis was confirmed, suggesting that some attentional factors in the interviewer play a role in how the patient is interrogated.

Approaches to Information Management in County Planning Authorities in England and Wales

The paper describes the findings of a survey of information management in the 54 country planning authorities of England and Wales. They indicate the extent to which current county planning practice is directed towards economic regeneration and the degree to which monitoring activities are still regarded as evolving despite the long time interval that has elapsed in many cases since the initial submission of the County structure plans. They show that there is a strong relationship between attitudes towards data collection, information handling and data dissemination. Authorities that favour 'hard' information handling strategies tend also to adopt a restricted approach to data collection, employing regular reporting procedures, and regard lack of relevant information as the most serious operational problem, whereas authorities that favour 'soft' documentary information handling strategies tend to favour comprehensive information gathering strategies, use ad hoc reporting procedures and regard information retrieval and lack of communication channels as the most serious operational problem.