TY - GEN
T1 - Cognitive Style Shapes Search Behaviours
T2 - 49th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval, SIGIR 2026
AU - TANG, Huimin
AU - Lee, Boon Giin
AU - Towey, Dave
AU - Wilson, Max L.
AU - Pike, Matthew
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 Owner/Author.
PY - 2026/7/19
Y1 - 2026/7/19
N2 - Cognitive style, a user's habitual approach to information processing, offers a promising approach to personalising information searching (IS) systems, yet the underlying style-related search behaviours remain poorly understood. This study investigates how the Wholist-Analytic and Verbal-Imagery dimensions of cognitive style influence search behaviour and prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation during the Post-focus stage of exploratory search. Forty participants completed comparison search tasks while we recorded behavioural metrics, subjective workload ratings, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data. Our results demonstrate that cognitive style significantly predicted search engine results page (SERP) interaction patterns: analytics and imagers adopted structured navigation with detailed reading, whereas wholists and verbalisers preferred sporadic navigation with rapid scanning. Critically, fNIRS revealed distinct PFC activation patterns, specifically in the Ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC) and Dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), corresponding to these behavioural differences. By mapping neuro-cognitive profiles to IR behaviours, this work provides empirical grounding for designing ''style-aware'' adaptive IR interfaces that tailor information density and navigational support to individual cognitive profiles.
AB - Cognitive style, a user's habitual approach to information processing, offers a promising approach to personalising information searching (IS) systems, yet the underlying style-related search behaviours remain poorly understood. This study investigates how the Wholist-Analytic and Verbal-Imagery dimensions of cognitive style influence search behaviour and prefrontal cortex (PFC) activation during the Post-focus stage of exploratory search. Forty participants completed comparison search tasks while we recorded behavioural metrics, subjective workload ratings, and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data. Our results demonstrate that cognitive style significantly predicted search engine results page (SERP) interaction patterns: analytics and imagers adopted structured navigation with detailed reading, whereas wholists and verbalisers preferred sporadic navigation with rapid scanning. Critically, fNIRS revealed distinct PFC activation patterns, specifically in the Ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC) and Dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC), corresponding to these behavioural differences. By mapping neuro-cognitive profiles to IR behaviours, this work provides empirical grounding for designing ''style-aware'' adaptive IR interfaces that tailor information density and navigational support to individual cognitive profiles.
KW - cognitive style
KW - exploratory search
KW - fnirs
KW - interactive information retrieval
KW - mental workload
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105047238821
U2 - 10.1145/3805712.3809541
DO - 10.1145/3805712.3809541
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:105047238821
T3 - SIGIR 2026 - Proceedings of the 49th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval
SP - 1743
EP - 1755
BT - SIGIR 2026 - Proceedings of the 49th International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Y2 - 20 July 2026 through 24 July 2026
ER -