Postgraduate research opportunities What does information feel like?
ApplyKey facts
- Opens: Friday 1 April 2022
- Number of places: 1
- Duration: 3 years
Overview
Information is usually assessed using cognitive criteria such as credibility, validity, etc. but often we make decisions on information according to how it makes us feel, e.g. excited, reassured, or annoyed. This PhD program will conduct an in-depth study of these emotional and visceral factors relating to information assessment.Eligibility
- applicants should have, or expect to achieve, at least a 2:1 Honours degree (or equivalent) or Masters degree in a relevant subject
- good presentation skills
- good communication skills and ability to work with research participants
- interest in information and information assessment
Project Details
Relevance criteria are the decisions people make on information objects that lead to a decision of relevance. These include things like tangibility (does the object contain tangible facts and figures), validity (is the information valid), verifiability (does the information fit with what other objects say), familiarity, etc. This is a powerful way to examine why we make decisions on information and how we might support searchers in making these decisions.
Ruthven (2021) proposed that this set of influential criteria was rather functional and that we could enrich our relevance vocabulary from well-validated relevance criteria such as topicality, tangibility, verifiability, etc. to consider resonance criteria, for example, inspiration, compelling narratives, stimulating examples, frisson, vicarious pleasure, etc. that describe more emotional and visceral aspects of relevance: how does relevance make us feel?
This project will examine whether it is possible to create such a set of resonance criteria to aid studying online searching.
Ruthven, I. Resonance and the experience of relevance. J Assoc Inf Sci Technol. 2021; 72: 554– 569.
Supervisors
The project will be supervised by Professor Ian Ruthven who is a Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences. He leads the Strathclyde ischool, is one of the leading and largest iSchools in the UK, working on information behaviour, information retrieval and information engagement.
Apply
Number of places: 1
To read how we process personal data, applicants can review our 'Privacy Notice for Student Applicants and Potential Applicants' on our Privacy notices' web page.