Abstract
It is confirmed through information users’ daily activities that they apply many shortcuts, ignore some information and use heuristics – particularly in electronic social networking environments. The critical analysis of the literature and research findings are used as a base to identify and create a short (preliminary) inventory of information heuristics that people use at various stages of seeking and conducting source evaluation (credibility assessment) to solve their everyday information problems. The use of heuristics (understood as sense-making activities that help information users to make a satisfying choice of the sources and distinguish the content of various quality and sufficiency) is discussed in the context of information literacy (IL) concept. The analysis of heuristics offers some additional explanation of online information behavior and personal information management strategies. The result of the research is a proposal to treat heuristics as intuitive but not accidental search tactics based on experience that should be included in IL training.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Lloyd, A.: Information Literacy Landscapes: Information Literacy in Education, Workplace and Everyday Contexts. Chandos Publishing, Oxford (2010)
Špiranec, S., Kos, D.: Information Literacy Practices and Student Protests: Mapping Community Information Landscapes. Information Research 18(3), paper C39 (2013), http://InformationR.net/ir/18-3/colis/paperC39.html
Materska, K.: Heuristics in the Untamed Information World. In: Nauka o Informacji w Okresie Zmian. Koncepcje, Metody, Badania, Praktyki. In: Sosińska-Kalata, B.(ed.) Warszawa, Wydaw. SBP, pp. 53–64 (Miscellanea Informatologica Varsoviensia vol. 7) (in print)
Metzger, M.J., Flanagin, A.J.: Credibility and Trust of Information in Online Environments: The Use of Cognitive Heuristics. Journal of Pragmatics 59, 210–220 (2013)
Metzger, M.J.: Making Sense of Credibility on the Web: Models for Evaluating Online Information and Recommendations for Future Research. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58(13), 2078–2091 (2007)
Hilligoss, B., Rieh, S.Y.: Developing a Unifying Framework of Credibility Assessment: Construct, Heuristics, and Interaction in Context. Information Processing & Management 44(4), 1467–1484 (2008)
Sundar, S.: The MAIN Model: A Heuristic Approach to Understanding Technology Effects on Credibility. In: Metzger, M., Flanagin, A. (eds.) Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility, pp. 73–100. MIT Press, Cambridge (2008)
Simon, H.A.: A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 69(1), 99–118 (1955)
Huvila, I.: In Web Search We Trust? Articulation of the Cognitive Authorities of Web Searching. Information Research 18(1), paper 567 (2013), http://InformationR.net/ir/18-1/paper567.html
Gigerenzer, G., Todd, P.M.: Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart. Oxford University Press, New York (1999)
Gigerenzer, G., Gaissmaier, W.: Heuristic Decision Making. The Annual Review of Psychology 62, 451–482 (2011)
Gigerenzer, G., Brighton, H.: Homo Heuristicus: Why Biased Minds Make Better Inferences. Topics in Cognitive Science 1, 107–143 (2009)
Gigerenzer, G.: Why Heuristics Work. Perspectives on Psychological Science 3(1), 20–29 (2008)
Tversky, A., Kahneman, D.: Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Science 185, 1124–1131 (1974)
Metzger, M.J., Flanagin, A.J., Medders, R.: Social and Heuristic Approaches to Credibility Evaluation Online. Journal of Communication 60(3), 413–439 (2010)
Sundar, S.S., Xu, Q., Oeldorf-Hirsch, A.: How Deeply do We Process Online Recommendations? Heuristic vs. Systematic Processing of Authority and Bandwagon Cues. In: 63rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association London, UK, June 17-21 (2013)
Sundar, S.S., Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Hastall, M.R.: News Cues: Information Scent and Cognitive Heuristics. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 58(3), 366–378 (2007)
Fischer, P., Jonas, E., Frey, D., Schulz-Hardt, S.: Selective Exposure to Information: The Impact of Information Limits. European Journal of Social Psychology 35, 469–492 (2005)
Ross, L., Greene, D., House, P.: The False Consensus Effect: An Egocentric Bias in Social Perception and Attribution Processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 13, 279–301 (1977)
Kruger, J., Wirtz, D., Van Boven, L., Altermatt, T.W.: The Effort Heuristic. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 40(1), 91–98 (2004)
Addison, C., Meyers, E.: Perspectives on Information Literacy: A Framework for Conceptual Understanding. Information Research 18(3) paper C27 (2013), http://InformationR.net/ir/18-3/colis/paperC27.html
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Materska, K. (2014). Information Heuristics of Information Literate People. In: Kurbanoğlu, S., Špiranec, S., Grassian, E., Mizrachi, D., Catts, R. (eds) Information Literacy. Lifelong Learning and Digital Citizenship in the 21st Century. ECIL 2014. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 492. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14136-7_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14136-7_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-14135-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-14136-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)