Affective Signals as Implicit Indicators of Information Relevancy and Information Processing Strategies

摘要: Search engines have become better in providing information to users, however, they still face major challenges such as determining how searchers process information, how they make relevance judgments, and how their cognitive or emotional state affect their search progress. We address these challenges by exploring searchers' affective dimension. In particular, we investigate how feelings, facial expressions, and electrodermal activity (EDA) could help to understand information relevancy, search progress, and information processing strategies (IPSs). To meet this goal, we designed an experiment with 45 participants exposed to affective stimuli prior solving a precision-oriented search task. Results indicate that initial affective states are linked to IPSs. In addition, we found that smiles act as implicit indicators of information relevancy and IPSs. Moreover, results convey that both smiles and EDA may serve as implicit indicators of progress and completion of search tasks. Findings from this work have practical implications in areas such as personalization and relevance feedback.