An IERI – International Educational Research Institute Journal
Table 1 Overview of the investigated behaviors
Pattern | Description | Operationalization | |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) | Flimsy | Individuals primarily focus on the information provided on the search results page and visit only a few websites, if any (see Juvina & Oostendorp, 2006). | Number of main pages visited <= 1 (for item u07, this number is always 1 when a response is given) |
(2) | Breadth-first | Individuals browse the surface of the available options. They visit only the main pages from the search results page and do not go deeper to explore their content (see Jenkins et al., 2003). | Number of main pages visited > 1¹, number of nested subpages visited = 0, and the conditions (5) Laborious² and (6) Multiple are not met |
(3) | Satisficing | Individuals browse the available options until they find the website that matches their subjective level of aspiration for solving the search problem (see Reader & Payne, 2007). | Number of main pages visited > 1¹, number of page revisits = 0, and the condition (6) Multiple is not met. Item u06b: Last visited website was chosen as response, participants did not change their response, and they did not engage in navigation activities afterward |
(4) | Sampling | Individuals go through the available options and explore and compare them until a website has been inspected to their satisfaction. They then decide on the subjectively best solution for the search problem (see Reader & Payne, 2007). | Item u06b: Number of main pages visited = 5, number of nested subpages visited > 0, and the conditions (5) Laborious² and (6) Multiple are not met Item u07: Number of main pages visited = 6, number of nested subpages visited > 0, and the conditions (5) Laborious² and (6) Multiple are not met |
(5) | Laborious | Individuals visit a large number of websites and make extensive use of the infrastructure ensuring to create a good representation of the provided information and its structure (see Juvina & Oostendorp, 2006). | Number of website visits reaches or exceeds the sum of the number of unique (back and forth) navigation steps and the number of navigation steps required to revisit the main pages. Item u06b: Number of website visits ≥ 26; Item u07: Number of website visits ≥ 34 |
(6) | Multiple | As the above descriptions of the behaviors (2) and (3) as well as (3) and (4) are not mutually exclusive, individuals can demonstrate behavior that is in line with both descriptions. | Participants’ behavior fits multiple patterns (e.g., satisficing and sampling: participants visit all main pages and at least some subpages before selecting the last visited page as their response) and the condition (5) Laborious is not met |
(7) | Unassigned | None of the above described behaviors were observed. | Participants gave a response but their behavior could not be assigned to the categories above |