Monitor on Psychology - March 2012 - (Page 44)

scIence Watch Tracking the scent of Cognitive psychologists have found that people search for information online in much the same way that animals hunt for food. Now those researchers are extending their theory to Twitter, Wikipedia and the rest of Web 2.0. By lE a Wi n E r M an • Monitor staff information esearchers have estimated the world’s data storage capacity at 295 exabytes — enough information to fill a pile of CDs that would stretch beyond the moon. That vast pile of information is only getting vaster: It increases by a factor of 10 every five years, according to researchers. Searching through the enormous amount of information that’s available online can be daunting. Looking for the nugget of knowledge you need amid thousands of irrelevant websites can make person feel like a carnivore stalking its game in a crowded, distracting forest. To Peter Pirolli, PhD, that analogy is more than just a metaphor. Pirolli, a cognitive psychologist and expert on human-computer interaction, has spent the past two decades studying the strategies people use to navigate and gather information online — and many times, he’s taken his inspiration from ecology. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he and his colleagues at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) found that the same mathematical models that describe how animals seek out food can also predict how people click their way through the Web in search of information. 44 R More recently, Pirolli and others have turned their attention to Web 2.0 — platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Del.icio.us, Wikipedia and others that encourage people to collaborate and share information. Their goal now is to figure out how users navigate through this new, socially networked space. They hope that by doing so, they’ll pave the way for websites that allow people to find, share and synthesize knowledge more effectively — a goal that grows more relevant each year, as people begin to use social networks not just for leisure but also to share health-care information online, manage work systems, and complete other complex tasks. And once again, the researchers are finding clues in the natural world that can help explain how the socially networked world works. Rise of the ‘informavore’ Pirolli and his colleague Stuart Card, PhD, first began developing their information foraging theory in the early 1990s, the dawn of the Internet age. They found their inspiration in biological foraging theory, which biologists and ecologists had developed decades earlier to help explain how animals decide when and where to look for food. M o n i to r o n p s yc h o l o g y • M a rc h 2 0 1 2 http://Del.icio.us

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - March 2012

Monitor on Psychology - March 2012
Letters
President’s column
Contents
From the CEO
Supreme Court rejects eyewitness protections
New member benefit: prevention screenings
A psychodynamic treatment for PTSD shows promise for soldiers
Was ‘Little Albert’ ill during the famed conditioning study?
New research identifies ways to improve eyewitness identifications
In Brief
‘Our health at risk’
Perspective on Practice
APA endorses higher education guidelines
TIME CAPSULE
QUESTIONNAIRE
Random Sample
Judicial Notebook
Help for struggling veterans
Driving out cancer disparities
In the Public Interest
SCIENCE WATCH
Practice, virtually
The legal and ethical issues of virtual therapy
Psychologist PROFILE
EARLY CAREER PSYCHOLOGY
Bringing life into focus
Pay attention to me
AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATION
Division Spotlight
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - March 2012

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