Research On Individual' Information-Acquisition Behaviorin Network Environment

Information acquisition as a kind of information behavior has become an important element of individual life. In information studies, the object for information acquisition is generally referred to as the information that is aggregated into information systems by human. Because of the limitation of the historical development of information technologies, the traditional concept of information in information systems was focused on the facts, data and knowledge recorded in documents such as text, graphics and images, which confined the connotation and extension of the concept of information acquisition to a relatively narrow range, that is, information seeking . With the rapid development of information technology, especially the enhancement of network technologies in 1990s, the Internet has become a major information distribution channel. On the Internet, increasingly richer information is available as well as the types of information carriers and the means and methods for information acquisition tend to be diverse and complex. Therefore, both the means of information acquisition and the content of information acquired are becoming complicated and dynamic in the network-based information environment. The focus of theoretical studies on information behavior has been oriented to individual information needs by"cognitive viewpoint". This dissertation is an in-depth research program on individual information behavior, which is one of the hot issues in information user study.In the field of Information Behavior Research , the foreign researchers such as Wilson, Ellis, Kuhlthau, Dervin, whose Information Behaviour Models are regarded as the classical delegates.They described the origin, stage, character of the Information Seeking Behaviour ,including the process of emotion factor.The Meaning Construct theory of Dervin is regarded as a kind of Metatheory of the Information Behavior Research.The relationships and interactions between individual, environment and information are clarified after in-depth analysis on the four theoretical models of international scholars on information behavior, Derven's sense-making theory in particular, and then the "information gap" concept is creatively proposed. From the viewpoint of ontology,"information gap"is the information that can change the cognitive structure or cognitive state of an individual. From the viewpoint of epistemology,"information gap"is the reproduction of ontological information in the"non-entity itself". Brooks'knowledge-increasing formula and Derven's sense-making theory are organically combined after information map is found as the growth element for individual cognitive structure. The concept of"information gap"has a profound theory value. The concept makes the information acquisition's target and individual's acknowledge construct combined close. In fact, to acquire the information, the individual is for the purpose of acquiring the"information gap".The information is the object which is acquired by individual who need information. In-depth discussion on the connotation and extension of the concept of information is carried out from the viewpoint of philosophy, and the hierarchy of information is clarified. In the ontological sense, information is the coupling of the way and state of matter movement in time and space. In information science, especially in information systems, information is represented with text, symbols, graphics, charts, audio and video, and stored in documents such as books and journals. Based on Popper's Three-Word theory, in-depth discussion is followed on the interaction and mutual conversion between World-I information, World-II information and World-III information. Through critical absorbing the Dervin's theory of Meaning Constuct,this discussion results in the revealing of the mechanism of individual behavior in information acquisition: an individual, facing a cognitive object in his/her current cognitive state, understands the past existence of the cognitive object through the acquisition and use of the"information gap"in information systems, and thus changes his/her cognitive state on this object or obtains the growth of his/her cognitive structure. The model for information acquisition behavior is proposed as one of the creative achievements in this dissertation.The establishment of the mechanism for information acquisition behavior have a significant theory meaning and practical meaning.It fully reflects the research paradigm with the focus on user study, and furthers the information behavior study directed by"cognitive theory". The significance or role of the mechanism is that it enables us to grasp all the factors impacting on the behavior and effectiveness of information acquisition.In the further study on information acquisition behavior, information needs or the reasons why the behavior occurs are probed in detail. The fundamental reason for information acquisition behavior is that the cognitive and emotional uncertainty of an individual. The direct reason for information acquisition behavior is the motivation of information needing that is triggered by the environment or social role of an individual. The network-based information system combines the objects, carriers, channels and methods of information acquisition into an integrated virtual electronic platform. Thus, it can satisfy multiple types of information needs and can be represented by"information "continuum".The process of individual information acquisition in network environment is analyzed stage by stage in chronological order. From the angle of individual cognition, it is divided into multiple stages including information need expression, information attention, information identification, information selection, information extraction and result evaluation. The relationship is described between the running, changing, stopping and continuing of information acquisition behavior, and the characteristics and principles of information acquisition behavior are summarized as well. Acknowledge viewpoint is applied again in the practice.The aim for information acquisition is to obtain useful information, and to meet the current information need of an individual. The results of information acquisition can be evaluated by the effectiveness of information acquisition. In the effectiveness of information acquisition behavior, the impacting factors on information seeking effectiveness are analyzed at the micro level, the medium level and the macro level. The impacts on the effectiveness of individual information acquisition become more indirect and weaker from the micro level through to the macro level. The micro-level factors derives from the subject of information acquisition, an individual itself, including his/her need, motivation, knowledge, capability, experience, values, and constraints in time and money. The medium-level factors include information sources and their organization, information services and etc., from the intermediary in information acquisition– network-based information systems. The macro-level factors come from the environment including technological environment, cultural environment, economic environment, political environment and so on.In order to increase the effectiveness of information acquisition, it is necessary to clarify an individual's strategy and method for information acquisition in network environment. The behavioral, cognitive and metacognitive processes through out information acquisition, as well as emotional and volitional processes, are systematically analyzed and discussed by using the theories and methods in behavioral science, cognitive science and psychology,. From the perspective of an individual, one whole process of information acquisition, from the beginning to the end, includes the physically behavioral interaction between the individual and an information system, and the cognitive interaction between the individual's consciousness and the information in the information system. Compared with the behavioral interaction, an individual's cognitive interaction belongs to the "internal activities" in which information is processed by the human brain. It can not be observed by others, and therefore falls within the scope of mental activities. However, in reality, an individual's mental activities are not constrained to the cognitive scope only; the individual's emotion and consciousness also participate in the activities of information acquisition. The behavioral process is accompanied by the cognitive process which in turn is accompanied by the emotional and conscious processes. In summary, information acquisition, from the behavioral motivation to the behavioral aim and from the beginning to the end, is far from being a simple "physical" process. It is a"physically and mentally active"process accompanied by the mental factors including cognitive and emotional ones. So, we could make a conclusion: information acquisition is an interactive process that is combined by acknowledge, action and psychology. The effective information acquisition must combine the individual's sense, passion and acknowledge with emotion, skill and will.