Judgment of Information Quality and Cognitive Authority in the Web：（判断信息质量和认知权威的网络）.pdfVIP

Judgment of Information Quality and Cognitive Authority in the Web Soo Young Rieh 450 Broadway Street, Redwood City, CA 94063. E-mail: srieh@ In the Web, making judgments of information quality and cause it is believed that they may be more important rele- authority is a difficult task for most users because over- vance criteria than any other criteria identified in the previ- all, there is no quality control mechanism. This study ous studies, especially in a large uncontrolled environment, examines the problem of the judgment of information quality and cognitive authority by observing people’s such as the Web. searching behavior in the Web. Its purpose is to under- The concepts of quality and authority are not new. On the stand the various factors that influence people’s judg- one hand, a number of studies of relevance criteria, partic- ment of quality and authority in the Web, and the effects ularly in the 1990s, identified various aspects of both con- of those judgments on selection behaviors. Fifteen cepts including “goodness” (Cool et al.), “usefulness” (Cool scholars from diverse disciplines participated, and data were collected combining verbal protocols during the et al.), “accuracy/validity” (Barry), “recency” (Barry; searches, search logs, and postsearch interviews. It was Wang, Soergel), “perceived quality” (Park), “actual qual- found that the subjects made two distinct kinds of judg- ity” (Wang Soergel), “expected quality” (Wang Soer- ment: predictive judgment, and evaluative judgment. gel), “authority” (Cool et al.; Wang Soergel), and “reli- The factors influencing each judgment of