Materials, data and code used in the SIGIR'24 paper: Characterizing Information Seeking Processes with Multiple Physiological Signals
Information access systems are getting complex, and our understanding of user behavior during information seeking processes is mainly drawn from qualitative methods, such as observational studies or surveys. Leveraging the advances in sensing technologies, our study aims to characterize user behaviors with physiological signals, particularly in relation to cognitive load, affective arousal, and valence. We conduct a controlled lab study with 26 participants, and collect data including Electrodermal Activities, Photoplethysmogram, Electroencephalogram, and Pupillary Responses. This study examines informational search with four stages: the realization of Information Need (IN), Query Formulation (QF), Query Submission (QS), and Relevance Judgment (RJ). We also include different interaction modalities to represent modern systems, e.g., QS by text-typing or verbalizing, and RJ with text or audio information. We analyze the physiological signals across these stages and report outcomes of pairwise non-parametric repeated-measure statistical tests. The results show that participants experience significantly higher cognitive loads at IN with a subtle increase in alertness, while QF requires higher attention. QS involves demanding cognitive loads than QF. Affective responses are more pronounced at RJ than QS or IN, suggesting greater interest and engagement as knowledge gaps are resolved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that explores user behaviors in a search process employing a more nuanced quantitative analysis of physiological signals. Our findings offer valuable insights into user behavior and emotional responses in information seeking processes. We believe our proposed methodology can inform the characterization of more complex processes, such as conversational information seeking.
The chosen topics and the corresponding TREC ID are:
| Topic | TREC ID |
|---|---|
| Marine Vegetation | R03.314 |
| Undersea Fiber Optic Cable | R03.320 |
| Antarctica exploration | R03.353 |
| Ocean Remote Sensing | R03.355 |
| Three Gorges Project | R03.416 |
| Recycle Automobile Tires | R03.419 |
| Greek Philosophy Stoicism | R03.433 |
| Ship Losses | R03.448 |
| Decorative Slate Sources | T04.708 |
| Freighter ship registration | T04.743 |
| Train Station Security Measures | T04.711 |
| Low White Blood Cell Count | T04.725 |
Kaixin Ji, Danula Hettiachchi, Flora D. Salim, Falk Scholer, and Damiano Spina. 2024. Characterizing Information Seeking Processes with Multiple Physiological Signals. In Proceedings of the 47th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval (SIGIR ’24), July 14–18, 2024, Washington, DC, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 12 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3626772.3657793
@inproceedings{10.1145/3626772.3657793,
author = {Ji, Kaixin and Hettiachchi, Danula and Salim, Flora D. and Scholer, Falk and Spina, Damiano},
title = {Characterizing Information Seeking Processes with Multiple Physiological Signals},
year = {2024},
isbn = {9798400704314},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3626772.3657793},
doi = {10.1145/3626772.3657793},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 47th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval},
pages = {1006–1017},
numpages = {12},
keywords = {information seeking, physiological signals, user studies},
location = {Washington DC, USA},
series = {SIGIR '24}
}
This research is supported by the Australian Research Council (DE200100064, CE200100005). The authors would like to acknowledge Country. This research has been carried out on the unceded lands of the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin nation. We pay our respects to their Ancestors and Elders, past, present, and emerging. We respectfully acknowledge their connection to land, waters, and sky.