Individual Differences in Information Seeking: An Empirical Study.

This paper provides preliminary results from a major study of human interaction with information retrieval (IR) systems. Our study was funded jointly by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the British Library Research and Innovation Centre (BLRIC) (Spink, Wilson, Ellis & Ford, 1998). The goal of the research was to explore the nature of mediated IR during a human information seeking process. We collected data from 121 information seekers who requested mediated searches during their information seeking process. This paper focuses on results related to the relationship between participants' gender, cognitive styles and information seeking behaviors. Results suggest a tentative mapping of the relationship between gender, age and cognitive style differences with a range of factors associated with information seeking activities. Implications for information seeking and interactive IR models are discussed.