Relevant Dissertations and Theses

This section describes a bibliometrics analysis of the dissertations and theses associated with the current research project. Dissertations and theses have been retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Database via QUT library link http://proquest.umi.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/pqdweb. The database includes

Doctoral dissertations from 1861 onwards, and Masters theses from 1962 to the present. As of the publication year 2008, sixty-six dissertations and theses have been retrieved by using “document title” as the search item.

Table 2-1 provides a summary of retrieval results, including the search terms and number of each corresponding dissertations and theses.

Table 2-1. Search terms and amount

Search Terms Number %

Web search* 33 50

multitasking 28 42

shift*and cognition 3 5

cognitive shift* 1 1.5

coordinat* and cognition 1 1.5

Total 66 100

The number of Web search/searching and multitasking research papers accounts for 92% of the total retrieved papers. Few dissertations or theses talk about research on the topics of cognitive coordination and cognitive shifts in the field of interactive IR.

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Table 2-2 shows the number of Doctoral dissertations and Masters theses, respectively. It demonstrates that more doctoral dissertations than Masters theses are related to this research.

Table 2-2. Statistics on dissertations and theses

Categories Number %

Doctoral dissertation 41 62

Masters thesis 25 38

Total 66 100

Table 2-3 provides a summary of the published dissertations and theses annually, from 1970 to 2008.

Table 2-3. The annual number of published dissertation and thesis related to this study

Figure 2-1 further indicates the trend of the yearly number of published studies.

Figure 2-1. Year-Number (from 1970 to 2008)

In general, the number of dissertations and theses on Web searching, multitasking, cognitive coordination, and cognitive shifts is not huge. From Figure 2-1, however, we can see the increasing trends year by year. Before 1990, there was only one published PhD or Masters Thesis per year; after 1990, the mean number reached two or three papers each year. In 2006, the number rose to fifteen. The number of dissertations for year 2007 dropped to three, but went up to ten in 2008. This suggests that the topic presently studied is becoming an important one and is attracting more and more interest from researchers.

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Topical Analysis

Topics of the retrieved dissertations and theses are analysed according to the relevance level to the current study. Amongst the retrieved degree documents, most of them refer to:

• The Entities of Web Search Engines and Web Search Strategies

These include, for example, implicit-feedback based ranking methodology for Web search engines (Adya, 2005), collaborative autonomous interface agent for personalised Web search (Al Nazer, 2006), effects of query ambiguity and results sorting method (Aurelio, 2002), psychological fidelity of Web search engines (Dudziak, 2000), efficient query processing in large Web search engines (Long, 2006), using the genetic algorithm to optimize Web search (Nguyen, 2006), web search strategies in technical environments (Sran, 1999), and contextual Web search based on semantic relationships (Zhang, 2006a).

• Multitasking in Multiple Fields

Studies have discussed multitasking interfering effects of multitasking on muscle activity (Au, 2005), cognitive multitasking in situated medical reasoning (Farand, 1996), media multitasking among American youth (Foehr, 2006), optimizing the multitasking of workers in just-in-time systems (Horng, 1996), real-time multitasking kernel for the IBM personal computer (Ju, 1988), multitasking control environment for flexible manufacturing system (Judt, 1988), social multitasking and nonverbal decoding (Lieberman, 1998), effects of multitasking on quality inspection in manufacturing systems (Pesante-Santana, 1997), real-time, multitasking approach to automatic monitoring and control of industrial processes (Pezas, 1992), multitasking on social networks (Swamy, 2005), multitasking in work groups (Waller,

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1995), and effects of monochronicity and polychronicity on multitasking strategy and performance (Zhang, 2006b).

• Cognitive Shifts and Coordination in Psychology and Language Learning

Keeling (1973) conducted a study on hypnosis and adaptive regression using Wild's cognitive shift measure; Cheng (1998) examined the effects of cognition–

emotion processes on shifts in conflict management strategies; Hochstadt (2004) adopted eye-tracking during sentence-picture matching to link deficits in language comprehension and cognition in Parkinson's disease; Fuse (2006) investigated flexible coordination of spatial cognition and language.

Even so, a few dissertations have shared similarities, to some extent, with this study which tries to identify rules, principles, relationships and coordination mechanisms of cognitive and multitasking information behaviour during the Web searching process.

• The model in Waller's (1995) dissertation examined how work groups managed multiple tasks under dynamic and deadline conditions and suggested that work groups engage in information gathering, task prioritisation, and resource allocation activities in order to perform multiple tasks. It provided the implications for theories of self-regulation and performance feedback effects while conducting multitasking behaviours, but not under Web searching context.

• Santon (2003) shed light on users’ information seeking behaviour in mediated information retrieval interaction. She explored the search stages users pursued as they proceeded to solve their information problems. The shifting patterns of the transitions between search stages were observed and identified, leading to the new model of information seeking behaviour

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that represented a non-linear process of multiple re-iterative cycles describing multiple search stages, aspects and dimensions of information seeking interaction. But there remains limited focus on how users coordinate these shifts between multiple search stages.

• Drawing on working memory theory, Tao (2006) examined cognitive processing during a Web search, whether the number of relevant search results returned during a Web search would increase cognitive load, and whether the increase would augment the processing of peripheral and irrelevant advertisements. However, this dissertation considered few multitasking characteristics during Web searching.

• Katzeff (1989) attempted to view problems of HCI in relation to theories in cognitive psychology. The thesis investigated adults' reasoning when learning to use database systems, with the aim of identifying cognitive steps involved in query writing and of examining the significance of the system image for users' mental models.

• Jong (1991) developed a HCI framework to describe the seven stages of HCI activities, classified as knowledge-based, rule-based, or skill-based behaviours and the underlying cognitive processes.

However, the above dissertations and theses are mainly concerned with cognitive processing or steps as users search on the Web or conduct HCI, paying limited attention to integrated characteristics of Web searches involving the aspects of multitasking, cognitive coordination, and cognitive shifts.

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