Ward 802 Presentation

Nature of Relevance in Information Science

Robyn Ward LI802XO

Time is a River without Banks, also known as Time has no Banks (1930-9) Marc Chagall Scanned image from Chagall: The Art of Dreams by Daniel Marchesseau.

What Is Relevance?

In the box below describe the painting and any thoughts that it may evoke.

What does this teach us about relevance?

Relevance is intuitively understood but difficult to define.

Saracevic’s Definitions of relevance: Relevance is the (A) gage of relevance of an (B) aspect of relevance existing between an (C) object judged and a (D) frame of reference as judged by an (E) assessor, where: (A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

(E)

Measure Degree

Utility Matching

Document Document

Question Question

Requestor Intermediary

representation

Representation

Extent Judgment

Informativeness Satisfaction

Reference Textual form

Research Stage Information Need

Expert User

Estimate Appraisal

Appropriateness Usefulness

Information provided Fact

Information Used Point of View

Person Judge

Relation

Correspondence

Article

Request

Information Specialist

Schamber, L., Eisenberg, M.B., and Nilan, M.S. (1990). A re-examination of relevance: toward a dynamic, situational definition. Information Processing & Management, 26(6), 761.

For example: Relevance is the Measure of a Correspondence existing between a Document and an Information Need as judged by a User.

Complete a definition of relevance: Relevance is the _______________ of a _______________ existing between a _______________ and a _______________ as judged by a _______________. Mizarro’s Partial Order of Relevances : Four Dimensions

1st Dimension •

Document : physical entity that is obtained after search

•

Surrogate: representation of document (example: abstract, extract, etc)

•

Information: what user receives when reading a document

2nd Dimension •

Problem: requires information to be solved

•

Information Need: a representation of the problem in the mind of the user which may be different than the actual need.

•

Request : representation of information need of the user in natural language

•

Query : a representation of the information in “system” language (i.e. Boolean)

3rd Dimension •

Topic: subject area in which user is interested

•

Task : activity involving the use of the retrieved documents

•

Context: affects how the search takes place and the evaluation of the results (outside factors such as time, situation, etc.)

th

4 Dimension •

Time: various instances from the beginning of a problem to its solution

Relevance has been referred to as Multi-dimensional and dynamic. Why?

Relevance has also been classified as Objective or Subjective. What are the differences?

5 Manifestations of Relevance: Algorithmic or System Relevance: system-oriented and objective. It is the relation between a query and the information objects in a system. Criteria for system relevance are the comparative effectiveness of the terms in a search.

Topical or Subject Relevance: system and user-oriented/objective and subjective. It is the relation between the subject or topic in a query and the topic or subject covered by texts retrieved by the system. Aboutness is criteria used for determining topical relevance.

Cognitive Relevance or Pertinence: user-oriented and subjective. It is the relation between the state of knowledge and cognitive information need of a user, information retrieved, and system. Criteria used for this would be novelty, quality, informativeness, and correspondence of information.

Situational Relevance or Utility: user-oriented and subjective. It is the relation between the situation, task, or problem and the information objects retrieved by the system. Criteria used for this would be usefulness of information in decision-making, appropriateness of information in problem solving, and reduction of uncertainty.

Motivational or Affective Relevance: user-oriented and subjective. It is the relation between the intents, goals, and motivations of a user, and texts retrieved by a system. The criteria for this are satisfaction, success, and accomplishment.

“As a cognitive notion relevance involves an interactive, dynamic establishment of a relation by inference, with intentions toward a context”--Saracevic 5 relevance manifestations presented in conjunction with 5 relevance attributes Attributes Relation

Algorithmic QueryInformation Objects

Topical Subject/topic expressed in query information objects

Cognitive State of knowledge/cognitive information need information objects

Intention

System dependent Intent behind algorithm

User/assessor expectations Intent behind query

Highly personal and Subjective Related to information need, intentions and motivations

Context

Search engine performance

All types of subjective relevance or context dependent

All types of subjective relevance or context dependent

Inference

Functions of weighting and ranking

Interpretation

Interaction

Automatic relevance feedback or modification of query

Relevance judgments are time dependent Increase as learn more

Subjective and individualized process of interpretation, selection and filtering Time dependent to a very large extent

Situational Perceived Situation, task or problem information objects as perceived by user Determined by user under influence of work task, previous experience, environment and time All types of subjective relevance or context dependent User’s ability to utilize objects in a meaningful way Extent to which information objects are utilized for specific purpose

Affective Relevance influences/affects all subjective relevance types/manifestations

Motivational Essentially is included in the attribute of intention

All types of subjective relevance or context dependent

Let’s put what we have discussed into practice…

Photograph of two Nez Perce women on horseback taken by Erskine Wood at the Nespilem Agency, winter 1893/94. From the Wood Family Collection. (Courtesy of Lewis & Clark College Special Collections/Archives division)

Who would have interest in the photo? What was the information seeker’s query or method of retrieving the image? How would the image be pertinent to the information seeker? What is the situational relevance for using this image? Describe the motivational relevance for retrieving this image.

Cognition and Relevance Learning is about more than simply acquiring new knowledge and insights; it is also crucial to unlearn old knowledge that has outlived its relevance. Thus, forgetting is probably at least as important as learning. --Gary Ryan Blair

Definition from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term cognition (Latin: cognoscere, "to know") is used in several loosely related ways to refer to a facility for the human-like processing of information, applying knowledge and changing preferences. Cognition/(cognitive processes) can be natural and artificial, conscious and not conscious; therefore, they are analyzed from different perspectives and in different contexts, in neurology, psychology, philosophy, systemics and computer science. The concept of cognition is closely related to such abstract concepts as mind, reasoning, perception, intelligence, learning, and many others that describe numerous capabilities of human mind and expected properties of artificial or synthetic intelligence.

Connecting our cognitive styles with the concepts of Relevance What is your Myers-Briggs Personality Type? Introvert/Extrovert; Sensing/Intuitive; Thinking/Feeling; Judging/Perceiving

What is your learning style? Visual; Auditory; Tactile/Kinesthetic

How would these affect your relevance judgments in information searching?