The user's mental model of an information retrieval system

By Christine L. Borgman. 1999

An empirical study was performed to train naive subjects in the use of a prototype Boolean logic-based information retrieval system on a bibliographic database. Subjects were undergraduates with little or no prior computing experience. Subjects trained with a conceptual model of the system performed better than subjects trained with procedural instructions, but only on complex, problem-solving tasks. Performance was equal on simple tasks. Differences in patterns of interaction with the system (based on a stochastic process model) showed parallel results. Most subjects were able to articulate some description of the system's operation, but few articulated a model similar to the card catalog analogy provided in training. Eleven of 43 subjects were unable to achieve minimal competency in system use. The failure rate was equal between training conditions and genders; the only differences found between those passing and failing the benchmark test were academic major and in frequency of library use.

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Citations in the corpus

Explanation in Human-AI Systems: A Literature Meta-Review, Synopsis of Key Ideas and Publications, and Bibliography for Explainable AI (2019, background): “Much of the research focuses on the role of mental models, including the role of mental models in the understanding of computer systems (e.g., Besnard, Greathead, and Baxter, 2004; Borgman, 1986).”
Strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects (2004, unknown): “As Borgman [57] and Pitts [58] have acknowledged, understanding of a phenomenon is gained gradually, through several studies, rather than one major project conducted in isolation.”
Understanding PubMed® user search behavior through log analysis (2009, background): “Some studies aim at evaluating the impact factor (11), or collection quality and system usability (12–15), others aim at evaluating models of the human sense-making process (16–19) and collaborative work (20,21).”
How Does Tacit Knowledge Proliferate? An Episode-Based Perspective (2006, background): “However, critics point to the lack of consistency in terminology, a lack of reliability in measurement, and a lack of validating measurement, as evidence that these notions are problematic (Borgman 1999; Dahlin 2001).”
Transparent Queries: investigation users' mental models of search engines (2001, background): “Borgman [6, 7] explicitly studied the mental models of users of Boolean retrieval systems.”
Mental Models: Theory and Application in Human Factors (1989, background): “Examples include studies by Borgman (1986), who examined differences in performance with an information retrieval system between people with "conceptual" training based on a system model and those with "procedural" training based purely on the system's operational logic; Halasz and Moran (1983),…”
How Influential Are Mental Models on Interaction Performance? Exploring the Gap between Users' and Designers' Mental Models through a New Quantitative Method (2017, background): “Halasz and Moran [40] and Borgman [41] found that, whether users formed amental model of a system or not, they performed no differently on routine, simple tasks.”