Assessing User’s Cognitive Load In The Process Of Academic Search

Academic search is a specific field of search,with strong professionalism and complexity.The cognitive load is the total amount of mental activity that the cognitive individual is subjected to in a particular information processing time.Academic search is different from the ordinary comprehensive search in two characteristics.The first is that it is difficult to use the appropriate query to query the problem accurately.The second is that the search process is relatively long which makes the users’ cognitive load very heavy in the search process.It is also the main obstacle to users in the academic search.Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process(ISP)theory has divided the information search process into six stages and has studied the process from the aspects of cognitive to a certain extent.But this research is not sufficiently relevant.In order to understand the search process,it is necessary to know the users’ cognitive activities and load in the process of information exchange.Cognitive load research can well reflect the user’s cognitive impairment and the cognitive needs when they are using the search system.Therefore,based on the theory of information search(ISP)and cognitive load theory,this paper studies the measurement and evaluation of cognitive load at different stages of academic search process,explores the dynamic changes of cognitive load in academic search process,and identifies the most heavy stage of the cognition load and the reasons,which is in order to enrich the cognitive aspects of the information search process and provide appropriate suggestions of system improvements to the academic search system designers.In this paper,the empirical research method is adopted.We recruit users to complete an intellectual academic search task which is divided into six tasks on the CNKI platform.The subjective cognitive load self-evaluation index data and time index data in the six different tasks collected by subjective scale method and task performance method is analyzed using quantitative analysis.The change pattern of user’s cognitive load was revealed during the academic search process.It is found that,(1)During the academic search process,the cognitive load of the six different stages of the user changes significantly.(2)Compared with the focus expression(FF)stage and the result display(RE)stage,users’ cognitive load in the focus of the exploration(PE)stage and the marked content(IG)stage is significantly higher,it reach the peak in the stage of PE.(3)In the first two stages of the academic search process,the initial stage of the task(TI)and the construction of the query(TS)stage,the user’s cognitive load is at a low level,significantly lower than the latter four stages.At the same time,the qualitative analysis method is used to interpret the user search behavior data and user interview data recorded by More software.The reason why the most important stage of user’s cognitive load is PE in the process of academic search is found and the suggestions for improving it are given.The research results of this paper can help to improve the service function and interactive design of the academic search system,and provide feasible help to the users in order to reduce its mental effort.It also has certain practical guiding value.