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Information foraging theory [1] provides scientific predictions and explanations of information-seeking behavior in human-computer interaction (HCI). It also provides engineering models for designing and evaluating information systems and their user interfaces. Information foraging theory assumes that people adapt their information-seeking behavior to maximize their rate of gaining useful information to meet their ongoing goals. Specific models of human-information interaction are developed through (i) rational analysis of the structure and constraints of the task environment and information environment that constitute the ultimate forces driving information-seeking behavior and (ii) specification of cognitive models (user knowledge and cognitive processes) that constitute the psychological machinery behind the observed information-seeking behavior of users. Rational analysis draws upon theories and mathematical approaches developed to...
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Pirolli, P. (2016). Information Foraging. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_205-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7993-3_205-2
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