A subjective logic formalisation of the principle of polyrepresentation for information needs

TY - GEN

T1 - A subjective logic formalisation of the principle of polyrepresentation for information needs

AU - Lioma, Christina

AU - Larsen, Birger

AU - Schütze, Hinrich

AU - Ingwersen, Peter

N1 - Proceeding IIiX '10 Proceedings of the third symposium on Information interaction in context Pages 125-134 ACM New York, NY, USA ©2010 table of contents ISBN: 978-1-4503-0247-0 doi>10.1145/1840784.1840804

PY - 2010

Y1 - 2010

N2 - Interactive Information Retrieval refers to the branch of Information Retrieval that considers the retrieval process with respect to a wide range of contexts, which may affect the user's information seeking experience. The identification and representation of such contexts has been the object of the principle of Polyrepresentation, a theoretical framework for reasoning about different representations arising from interactive information retrieval in a given context. Although the principle of Polyrepresentation has received attention from many researchers, not much empirical work has been done based on it. One reason may be that it has not yet been formalised mathematically.In this paper we propose an up-to-date and flexible mathematical formalisation of the principle of Polyrepresentation for information needs. Specifically, we apply Subjective Logic to model different representations of information needs as beliefs marked by degrees of uncertainty. We combine such beliefs using different logical operators, and we discuss these combinations with respect to different retrieval scenarios and situations. A formal model is introduced and discussed, with illustrative applications to the modelling of information needs.

AB - Interactive Information Retrieval refers to the branch of Information Retrieval that considers the retrieval process with respect to a wide range of contexts, which may affect the user's information seeking experience. The identification and representation of such contexts has been the object of the principle of Polyrepresentation, a theoretical framework for reasoning about different representations arising from interactive information retrieval in a given context. Although the principle of Polyrepresentation has received attention from many researchers, not much empirical work has been done based on it. One reason may be that it has not yet been formalised mathematically.In this paper we propose an up-to-date and flexible mathematical formalisation of the principle of Polyrepresentation for information needs. Specifically, we apply Subjective Logic to model different representations of information needs as beliefs marked by degrees of uncertainty. We combine such beliefs using different logical operators, and we discuss these combinations with respect to different retrieval scenarios and situations. A formal model is introduced and discussed, with illustrative applications to the modelling of information needs.

U2 - 10.1145/1840784.1840804

DO - 10.1145/1840784.1840804

M3 - Article in proceedings

SP - 125

EP - 134

BT - IIiX '10 Proceedings of the third symposium on Information interaction in context

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - Information Interaction in Context

Y2 - 18 August 2010 through 22 August 2010

ER -