Search Behavior Research Articles

Learning modifies attention during bumblebee visual search

The role of visual search during bee foraging is relatively understudied compared to the choices made by bees. As bees learn about rewards, we predicted that visual search would be modified to prioritise rewarding flowers. To test this, we ran an experiment testing how bee search differs in the initial and later part of training as they learn about flowers with either higher- or lower-quality rewards. We then ran an experiment to see how this prior training with reward influences their search on a subsequent task with different flowers. We used the time spent inspecting flowers as a measure of attention and found that learning increased attention to rewards and away from unrewarding flowers. Higher quality rewards led to decreased attention to non-flower regions, but lower quality rewards did not. Prior experience of lower rewards also led to more attention to higher rewards compared to unrewarding flowers and non-flower regions. Our results suggest that flowers would elicit differences in bee search behaviour depending on the sugar content of their nectar. They also demonstrate the utility of studying visual search and have important implications for understanding the pollination ecology of flowers with different qualities of reward.Significance statementStudies investigating how foraging bees learn about reward typically focus on the choices made by the bees. How bees deploy attention and visual search during foraging is less well studied. We analysed flight videos to characterise visual search as bees learn which flowers are rewarding. We found that learning increases the focus of bees on flower regions. We also found that the quality of the reward a flower offers influences how much bees search in non-flower areas. This means that a flower with lower reward attracts less focussed foraging compared to one with a higher reward. Since flowers do differ in floral reward, this has important implications for how focussed pollinators will be on different flowers. Our approach of looking at search behaviour and attention thus advances our understanding of the cognitive ecology of pollination.

Variable search for orientation, uniformly optimal search for identity.

We compare eye movement strategies across a range of different stimulus sets to test the prediction that eye movements are guided by expected information gain. When searching for a simple target that has been defined based on orientation, interindividual variability is high, and a large proportion of eye movements are directed to locations where peripheral vision would have been sufficient to determine whether the target was present there or not. In contrast, when searching for a target defined based on identity, eye movements are similar across individuals and highly efficient, being directed almost exclusively to the locations where central vision is most needed. The results suggest that for most people, the way they search for a simple feature (orientation) is not directly representative of the way they search for objects based on their identity. More generally, the results highlight that because humans are adaptable, contradictory theories can be accurate descriptions of search in particular contexts and individuals. For a complete and accurate account of human search behavior to be achieved, the conditions that shift us from one mode of behavior to another need to be part of our models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Analysis of the Relationship Between Academic Information Needs and Student Information Search Behavior at the Padjadjaran University Repository

Developments in the field of library technology, especially in the storage and dissemination of information, have also encouraged institutional awareness to increase their information resource assets. The Padjadjaran University Repository functions as a means of storing, preserving and making accessible sources of information on research that has been prepared by the academic community. Students need scientific sources in the process of completing their coursework, they carry out various stages in searching for appropriate information in their own way. This research aims to determine academic information needs and student information seeking behavior at the Padjadjaran University Repository. The data analysis technique used is descriptive analysis and Pearson Product Moment correlation analysis. Based on the processed data, it was found that the concept of academic information needs has a significant relationship with information seeking behavior. The Padjadjaran University repository is able to provide valid information and can be used as reference material for lecture assignments to students as users. This is because the Padjadjaran University Repository is considered by students to have provided sufficient information based on the form, method of presentation and scope.

How Important Is Word of Mouth? Development, Validation, and Application of a Scale

Companies spend large amounts of money to induce word of mouth (WOM) and spread it among consumers. This research introduces the concept of “WOM relevance,” which measures the importance of WOM for consumers’ purchase-decision process in a specific category. It uses three studies to develop and validate a parsimonious scale to measure WOM relevance at the consumer level across various product categories and different types of WOM, and applies the scale in an additional set of five studies. Specifically, this research disentangles the consumer-level and category components of WOM relevance; shows that the consumer-level variation is (much) larger than the category-level variation; and provides insights into differences in WOM relevance across categories, consumers, and WOM types. It also empirically shows that electronic WOM relevance relates to consumers’ search behavior and consideration-set formation in an online-shopping environment. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the proposed scale predicts choices as well as a more sophisticated choice model does. Finally, this research shows that WOM relevance influences not only consumers’ own purchase-decision process but also their intentions to retransmit others’ WOM messages.

Analyst Coverage and Synchronous Knowledge Search: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

AbstractThis study develops a theory concerning the ways in which firms manage knowledge search in relation to the search behaviours of competitors. While the search behaviours of competitors provide information cues regarding the possible distribution of valuable innovation opportunities in the knowledge space, a focal firm may search with competitors synchronously (i.e. searching with competitors in the same knowledge areas at the same time) or asynchronously (i.e. searching in different knowledge areas from competitors). This study examines the quest for legitimacy under institutional pressure as a key contingency that shapes firms’ propensity to search with competitors synchronously or asynchronously. Focusing on scrutiny by security analysts as a source of institutional pressure, and employing mergers and acquisitions of brokerage houses as a natural experiment that results in exogenous drops in analyst coverage, this study finds that firms are more prone to search with competitors asynchronously following an exogenous drop in analyst coverage, providing support to the theory. Additional analysis shows that the positive relationship between an exogenous drop in analyst coverage and a firm's asynchronous search behaviour is less pronounced when the firm in question has proven its ability to capture valuable innovation opportunities via high innovation performance.

How Much Are Government Jobs in Developing Countries Worth?

Abstract Government jobs in developing countries are valuable not just because they pay relatively higher wages, but also because they provide many valuable amenities. How does the value of these amenities compare with the nominal wage itself? The observed search behavior of candidates preparing for competitive exams for government jobs is used to infer a lower bound on the total value of a government job, including amenities. Based on a sample of 147 candidates preparing for civil service exams in Pune, India, the amenity value of a government job is estimated to comprise at least two-thirds of total compensation. The high amenity value is not driven by misinformed beliefs about the nominal wage, nor by a high value placed on the process of studying itself. Insights from focus group discussions help explain which government job amenities are most valued in this setting.

Quality of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Information on the Chinese Internet: Website Evaluation Study.

The development of internet technology has greatly increased the ability of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to obtain health information, giving patients more initiative in the patient-physician decision-making process. However, concerns about the quality of website health information will affect the enthusiasm of patients' website search behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the current situation of Chinese internet information on COPD. This study aims to evaluate the quality of COPD treatment information on the Chinese internet. Using the standard disease name "" ("chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" in Chinese) and the commonly used public search terms "" ("COPD") and "" ("emphysema") combined with the keyword "" ("treatment"), we searched the PC client web page of Baidu, Sogou, and 360 search engines and screened the first 50 links of the website from July to August 2021. The language was restricted to Chinese for all the websites. The DISCERN tool was used to evaluate the websites. A total of 96 websites were included and analyzed. The mean overall DISCERN score for all websites was 30.4 (SD 10.3; range 17.3-58.7; low quality), no website reached the maximum DISCERN score of 75, and the mean score for each item was 2.0 (SD 0.7; range 1.2-3.9). There were significant differences in mean DISCERN scores between terms, with "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" having the highest mean score. The quality of COPD information on the Chinese internet is poor, which is mainly reflected in the low reliability and relevance of COPD treatment information, which can easily lead consumers to make inappropriate treatment choices. The term "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" has the highest DISCERN score among commonly used disease search terms. It is recommended that consumers use standard disease names when searching for website information, as the information obtained is relatively reliable.

Google effects on memory: a meta-analytical review of the media effects of intensive Internet search behavior.

People are increasingly using the web for fact-checking and other forms of information seeking. The "Google effects" refers to the idea that individuals rely on the Internet as a source of knowledge rather than remembering it for themselves. However, few literature review have yet comprehensively examined the media effects of this intensive Internet search behavior. In this study, by carrying out meta-analysis, we found that google effects is closely associated with cognitive load, behavioral phenotype and cognitive self-esteem. And this phenomenon is also more likely to happen while using a mobile phone to browse the Internet rather than a computer. People with a larger knowledge base are less susceptible to the consequences of Internet use than those with a smaller knowledge base. The media effect was stronger for persons who had used the Internet before than for those who had not. And meta-analyses show that participants in North America (parameter = -1.0365, 95%CI = [-1.8758, -0.1972], p < 0.05) are more susceptible to frequent Internet search behavior relative to other regions. Overall, google effects on memory challenges the way individuals seek and read information, and it may lead to changes in cognitive and memory mechanisms.

Large-scale online job search behaviors reveal labor market shifts amid COVID-19

Large-scale online job search behaviors reveal labor market shifts amid COVID-19

Does crowding predict conjunction search? An individual differences approach

Searching for objects in the visual environment is an integral part of human behavior. Most of the information used during such visual search comes from the periphery of our vision, and understanding the basic mechanisms of search therefore requires taking into account the inherent limitations of peripheral vision. Our previous work using an individual differences approach has shown that one of the major factors limiting peripheral vision (crowding) is predictive of single feature search, as reflected in response time and eye movement measures. Here we extended this work, by testing the relationship between crowding and visual search in a conjunction-search paradigm. Given that conjunction search involves more fine-grained discrimination and more serial behavior, we predicted it would be strongly affected by crowding. We tested sixty participants with regard to their sensitivity to both orientation and color-based crowding (as measured by critical spacing) and their efficiency in searching for a color/orientation conjunction (as indicated by manual response times and eye movements). While the correlations between the different crowding tasks were high, the correlations between the different crowding measures and search performance were relatively modest, and no higher than those previously observed for single-feature search. Instead, observers showed very strong color selectivity during search. The results suggest that conjunction search behavior relies more on top-down guidance (here by color) and is therefore relatively less determined by individual differences in sensory limitations as caused by crowding.

The Path of Least Resistance: Optimizing Metadata Practices through User Assessment

As part of a multi-faceted research project examining user engagement with various types of descriptive metadata to improve metadata services, Utah State University Libraries Cataloging and Metadata Services unit investigated user search behavior in library catalog (MARC) records, Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids, and most recently in digital collection metadata. The authors used web log analysis to determine how users interacted with CONTENTdm, categories of search terms used, and where search terms were found in a record. Key findings included that navigation through CONTENTdm using clickable queries (links) is a prominent user search pattern, dates are an important faceting tool and date ranges as a clickable link are heavily used, users demonstrated a more engaged research pattern when searching with geographic terms, and subject and transcription metadata fields match user search terms at a significant rate and are likely to be high drivers of search results.

Exploring parents’ child care search and decision-making processes

Searching for child care is an important stageof the parental child care decision-making process. Although previous studies have identified a series of factors related to parents’ child care decision-making, little is known about parents’ child care search processes. Using the 2012 National Survey of Early Careand Education (NSECE) dataset, this study aims to identify family and community characteristics related to parents’ child care search behaviors and their final care choices. The study examined the search strategies of parents of preschoolers (36–60 months), including the type of programs that parents consider, the number of options that parents consider, and the sources of information they consult in the process of making child care decisions. Results showed that 43 % of parents only considered one option during their child care search. The type of child care considered, and the source of information parents used during their child care search were significantly related to their final choices. As many states are currently developing the consumer education program to help parents select child care arrangement, the findings from this study have direct implications for policy and practices.

Uniformly positive or negative correlation of cerebral gray matter regions with driving safety behaviors of healthy older drivers

This study investigated the relationship between cerebral gray matter (GM) regions and driving safety behaviors (DSBs) of 98 older drivers without dementia (mean age, 77.72 ± 3.677 years). Their DSBs were evaluated on actual vehicles running on a closed-circuit course. The DSB was scored in six categories: DSB1, visual search behavior; DSB2, speeding; DSB3, signaling of the indicator; DSB4, vehicle stability; DSB5, positioning; and DSB6, steering. The scores were calculated by a single driving instructor; larger scores indicated safer driving performances. Regional GM volumes were measured with voxel-based morphometry by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Out of 56 GM regions, 18 were correlated with DSB categories except for DSB4. When a single GM region was correlated with multiple DSB categories, a positive or negative response was uniformly determined for the respective region despite clear differences in the DSB categories. This result suggests the possible existence of two contradictory mechanisms in the brain for DSB. The left postcentral gyrus may largely function in regulating DSBs because it was negatively correlated with five of six DSB categories. Thus, MRI’s measurement of regional GM volumes may help deepen the understanding of the diversity and complexity inherent in brain functions for DSBs.

Search Behaviour in Public Spaces: Insights from Urban Kiosks and the Search Behaviour Test

We investigated data acquired from varied people engaging with urban kiosks in this study on search Behaviour in public settings. The data shows a diverse variety of user demographics, such as age, gender, and educational level. The research found that interaction durations varied, with an average of 16 minutes, suggesting the fluid nature of user involvement. Furthermore, the Search Behaviour Test findings revealed varying success rates for different search categories, with "News" queries attaining the greatest success rate of 85%. These results highlight the need of user-centric design and strategic content optimization in urban kiosk interfaces, therefore improving user experience and information retrieval efficacy in the developing environment of smart cities.

Willingness-to-use and preferences for model-informed antenatal doses: a cross-sectional study among European healthcare practitioners and pregnant women.

Background: Physiological changes in pregnancy may affect drug safety and efficacy, sometimes requiring dose adjustments. Pregnancy-adjusted doses, however, are missing for most medications. Increasingly, pharmacokinetic models can be used for antenatal dose finding. Given the novelty of this technique and questions regarding dose credibility, the acceptability of model-informed antenatal doses should be explored. Objective: We aimed to assess the willingness-to-use and preferred features for model-informed antenatal doses among healthcare practitioners (HCPs) and pregnant women in European countries. Methods: A cross-sectional, web-based study drawing on two open surveys was performed between 8 September and 30 November 2022. Each survey comprised statements drawn from prior focus groups, associated with Likert-scales. Themes included respondents' information needs, search behaviours along with their willingness-to-use and preferred features for model-informed antenatal doses. The surveys were disseminated through professional societies, pregnancy websites and social media. A descriptive analysis was performed. Results: In total, 608 HCPs from different specialties and 794 pregnant women across 15 countries participated, with 81% of respondents across both groups in the Netherlands or Belgium. Among pregnant women, 31% were medical professionals and 85% used medication during pregnancy. Eighty-three percent of HCPs found current antenatal pharmacotherapy suboptimal and 97% believed that model-informed antenatal doses would enhance the quality of antenatal care. Most HCPs (93%) and pregnant women (75%) would be willing to follow model-informed antenatal doses. Most HCPs desired access to the evidence (88%), including from pharmacokinetic modelling (62%). Most pregnant women (96%) wanted to understand antenatal dosing rationales and to be involved in dosing decisions (97%). Conclusion: The willingness-to-use model-informed antenatal doses is high among HCPs and pregnant women provided that certain information needs are met.

Self-driving laboratories to autonomously navigate the protein fitness landscape

Protein engineering has nearly limitless applications across chemistry, energy and medicine, but creating new proteins with improved or novel functions remains slow, labor-intensive and inefficient. Here we present the Self-driving Autonomous Machines for Protein Landscape Exploration (SAMPLE) platform for fully autonomous protein engineering. SAMPLE is driven by an intelligent agent that learns protein sequence–function relationships, designs new proteins and sends designs to a fully automated robotic system that experimentally tests the designed proteins and provides feedback to improve the agent’s understanding of the system. We deploy four SAMPLE agents with the goal of engineering glycoside hydrolase enzymes with enhanced thermal tolerance. Despite showing individual differences in their search behavior, all four agents quickly converge on thermostable enzymes. Self-driving laboratories automate and accelerate the scientific discovery process and hold great potential for the fields of protein engineering and synthetic biology.

How can complacency mold managerial decisions? The role of perceptions in strategic decision-making

This paper addresses how managers react to attainment discrepancies in their firms’ performance. Scholars have generally argued that only when performance drops below a predetermined aspiration level firms present a search and change behavior in order to fix this dropping performance. In particular, prior research assumes that organizations compare their performance against preset aspiration levels proceeding from their peers’ performance or their own performance in prior years when determining the urgency of engaging in organizational change. However, empirical evidence on this issue is ambiguous and inconclusive. We tackle this puzzle by studying the executives’ complacency (or cognitive interpretations) with objective results of the firm to determine when the company will decide to change and the magnitude of those changes. Using a sample of 137 medium-sized firms, we do find that the combination of objective results with the managerial perception of them, allows us to obtain a better understanding of the performance feedback literature. Thus, organizational change will be (only) enhanced in front of low managerial levels of complacency with organizational results, disregarding the sign of the objective performance feedback obtained by the firm. Moreover, in our research, we go one step further in analyzing several executives’ characteristics that may affect this managerial complacency.

Pursuing stability in crisis: The impact of COVID-19-related work changes on information search and job-seeking behaviors

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly altered the way employees work and has had a significant impact on their subsequent behaviors. In this study we applied affective events theory and developed an adjustable mediation model to examine how COVID-19-related work changes influence employees’ behaviors. We conducted an online survey and collected data from 571 people employed in various businesses across several provinces in China. The results indicated that COVID-19-related work changes positively predicted work-related information seeking and job-seeking behaviors, with job insecurity serving as a mediator. Furthermore, job embeddedness amplified the positive relationship between job insecurity and the search for work-related information. The theoretical and practical consequences of these results are discussed.

An Analysis of the Patent Search Behavior of Human Experts and its Impact on Patent Retrieval Performance

An Analysis of the Patent Search Behavior of Human Experts and its Impact on Patent Retrieval Performance

Improved Evolutionary Multitasking Optimization Algorithm With Similarity Evaluation of Search Behavior

Improved Evolutionary Multitasking Optimization Algorithm With Similarity Evaluation of Search Behavior