Predicting changes in task difficulty perception based on visual behavior in mobile health information search

Abstract

With the proliferation of online health resources, mobile health information search has become the new norm, in which the task difficulty perception in search affects the user's search experience. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between visual behavior that reflects users' cognitive processing and changes in perceived task difficulty, thereby predicting such changes.

This study was conducted through a controlled experiment. 46 participants were recruited to complete four tasks. Visual behavior data were collected through eye-tracking technology, and changes in task difficulty perception were measured through pre-task and post-task questionnaires. The mobile health information search process is divided into three search activities: querying, browsing, and viewing activities. Predictors were inspected from the overall session and individual search activity levels using the Mann-Whitney U test, and then K-Nearest Neighbor, Extreme-Trees, Naive Bayesian, Support Vector Machine, Logistic Regression algorithms were used to predict and evaluate prediction effects.

The results showed significant differences in participants' fixation and saccade behaviors between increases and decreases in task difficulty, both at the overall session and individual search activity level. The logistic regression algorithm demonstrated the highest predictive performance, Furthermore, visual behavioral indicators for the browsing activity proved to perform better relative to the other search activities.

This study highlights the importance of visual behavioral indicators as reliable predictors of changes in users' perceived task difficulty in mobile health information search. It can help health information providers and administrators to provide timely and targeted assistance and implement effective guidance strategies.