Multitasking Information Behavior And Information Task Switching: An Exploratory Study

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Objectives

The aim of this study is knowing the nature of an information seeker’s multitasking information behavior and information task switching. The researcher wants to scrutinize the way information seeker carry out multitasking information behavior, to look into the model of multitasking information behavior and information task switching, to check the mix techniques of data collection such as observation, diary, and interview.

Design

A Qualitative, exploratory study using observational, diary and interview

Setting: 1 Public library (2 visits)

Subjects/Participants: A resident of State College, Pennsylvania who had a college-level education and was a full-time mother.

Methods

Diary of actions and thoughts

The data was assembled by the diary of actions and thoughts at the time of visiting the library two times. The researcher used a qualitative data collection technique to get in-depth actions and thoughts of the information seeker. The researcher asked the information seeker to write on a blank paper about her actions and thoughts when she comes to the library.

Observation

The other method for collecting the data was the observation method in which the researcher from a distance observed the information seeker when she visited the library to note the behavior of information seeker.

Interview

Furthermore, to enhance the diary and observation method the researcher conducted open-ended interviews from the information seeker after each library visit. The purpose of the open-ended interviews was to talk about the information seeker’s diary notes and process throughout the time of library visit.

Main Result

The Information seeker made two visits to one public library. The first library visit was on Thursday, 19th June 2003 at 11:00 A.M. This visit involved three information tasks which were information on Miami Beach and South Beach in Florida, Information and books about cooking with polenta and Information on a new drug (Xolain) to treat allergic asthma. The information seeker interacted with the library’s catalog, magazine index, and web during her six Electronic searches in her first visit. Physical library searches: This involves the information seeker to search a book or magazine physically in the library which involved the activities of finding Italian cookbooks on polenta. During her second physical library search, she looked into the magazines for tourist books and in her final physical search she went back to the Italian cooking section to get the book on ten polenta recipes and she borrowed it. Serendipity browsing episode: The serendipity browsing occurred when the information seeker was physically browsing the library shelves but ended up on looking at the DVD movies first. In addition to that, she went to towards Greek cooking books but not specifically polenta recipes. Furthermore, she decided to look for the books on Miami beach but looked at the political books for a time being and in the meanwhile, she decided to borrow a book by Bob Woodward. Information Task Switching: The information seeker’s process of information task switching was analyzed as a sequence. The first library visit consisted of a sequence of thirteen information task switches. The information seeker visited the same public library on Tuesday, 1st, July 2003. Here the information seeker stopped looking at the information for task 3 (information on a drug (Xolain) for treating allergic asthma) and started working on the information task four (colon cancer). Electronic Searches: In her second library visit she searched the book catalog on Miami then she went back to the electronic book catalog to search books on colon cancer. Physical library search: During this search she went directly to the shelf for knowing that if there was anything different on the shelf on Italian cooking books. Serendipity Browsing: In the second visit of library serendipity browsing occurred when she was looking for DVD movies to borrow but when she came to the library she saw some books on food for summer on the display. Information Task Switching: The second library visit looked over into the information task switching four times. In the interview, the information seeker recognized the cause of information task switching and serendipity of browsing episodes. She said she got plenty of information that required examination before beginning that task. She also mentioned that when she gets to search on one specific task she used to get bored with it and then shift to another task. She also prioritized her information tasks on the area of her interest which was related to her field. In addition to that, she said that the images in the library give rise to serendipity browsing and leads to borrowing a book.

Conclusion

Based on the voluntarily participated information seeker the author concludes that the multitasking information behavior and task switching behavior depend on one’s area of interest and the level of difficulty they face while they are looking for the information. The author stated that one switch from searching a piece of specific information to others when they find something more productive then what they were looking for. Moreover, multitasking information behavior can be considered as part of productive output.

Commentary

The evolving complexities in our daily life tasks mostly take people into multitasking behavior which has now become an important factor in human information behavior. At present, limited knowledge exists on users’ searching behavior and the extent of successive search behavior by Web and digital library users (Spink,1996). Most literature on this point provides a theoretical model of information task switching during multitasking information behavior. The supporting behavior of multi-tasking information behavior has become a challenge for system designers. During the user’s search interaction information retrieval systems supports the user supporting behavior on this task (Spink,1999a, b). Distributing the search function to the systems, and the decision-making function to information seeker, the obtained results will be better than being totally purely human or purely machine-based search (Drury & Sinclair, 1983; Hou, Lin, & Drury, 1993). The article evaluated the nature of an information seeker between information seeker multitasking information behavior and information task switching. The author used a mix of data collection techniques such as observations, diary of thoughts and interviewing for the results. The study was designed well and could serve as a model for investigating the information seeker’s multitasking information behavior and information task switching. The research methodology is explained in detail and can be used by any other researcher for further research. Considering the limitation of the research, there may be some concern about the sample size. Results from a single volunteer participant cannot be representative of all the population. Comprehensive information tasks can be designed and the population can be increased to get representative of that population. Suggestions for selecting the population can be made by selecting the people of the same characteristics such as selecting only college students, working men/women, etc. The author stated that further research is needed to enlighten the capacities of information seeker for task switching, to know what potential is required for multitasking information behavior and how productive are the results.

References

Drury, C.G., & Sinclair, M.A. (1983). Human and machine performance in an inspection task. Human Factors, 25(4), 391–399.
Hou, T., Lin, L., & Drury, C.G. (1993). An empirical study of hybrid inspection systems and allocation of inspection functions. International Journal of Human Factors in Manufacturing, 3(4),351–367.
Spink, A. (1996). A multiple search session model of end-user behavior: An exploratory study. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 47(8), 603-609.
Spink, A., Bateman, J. and Greisdorf, H. (1999a), “Successive searching behavior during information seeking: an exploratory study”, Journal of Information Science, Vol. 25 No. 6, pp. 439‐49.
Spink, A., Bateman, J. and Jansen, B.J. (1999b), “Searching heterogeneous collections on the Web: a survey of Excite users”, Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 117‐28.

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