I Can and So I Search More: Effects Of Memory Span On Search Behavior

Abstract

Search effort is an important aspect of Interactive Information Retrieval (IIR). Prior findings show that higher cognitive ability searchers tend to perform more actions than lower ability searchers. In an eye-tracking lab study we investigated the effects of working memory (WM) on search effort. The findings show that higher WM searchers perform more actions and that most significant differences are in time spent on reading results pages. We also show that behavior of high and low WM searchers changes differently in the course of a search task performance.