1. The Sense of Information: Understanding the cognitive conditional information concept in relation to information acquisition
Peter Ingwersen* & Kalervo Järvelin**
Department of Information Studies
*Royal School of LIS – Denmark & **Tampere University - Finland -

2. Agenda Information acquisition & IS&R
Information acquisition in context
The cognitive information conception
Generalization & Consequences
Alternative information conceptions
Context & information acquisition
Acquisition from sensory data
Scientific discovery
Conclusions
2005
Peter Ingwersen

3. Information acquisition & IS&R
Outcome of information acquisition is paramount to further intellectual, emotional and/or physical activities in
Daily-life situations
Scientific discovery and development
Information Seeking & Retrieval (IS&R) are important activities in information acquisition processes
2005
Peter Ingwersen

4. Information acquisition in context
Human information acquisition from any kind of source involves:
Communication between Sender & Recipient
Messages in a Channel, and
A degree of shared context between S & R
IS&R requires intentionality on both sides
Information acquisition from sensory data is a special case of intentionality …
2005
Peter Ingwersen

5. Information conception for LIS & information acquisition
An information conception relevant to information acquisition from
Intentional signs (information objects)
Un-intentional signals (from nature) – and
Ought to be associated with all the components of communication
2005
Peter Ingwersen

6. The conditional cognitive information conception - 1992
Condition 1: Information being something, which is the
result of a transformation of generator(s)’ knowledge structures
by intentionality,
model of recipients’ states
and in the form of signs
Condition 2: and being something, which
when perceived, affects and transforms the recipient’s state of knowledge
2005
Peter Ingwersen

7. The cognitive communication system
2005
Peter Ingwersen

8. The cognitive information conception – consequences:
According to Searle (Austin) speech act stresses the intent of the act:
Understanding the sender’s intentionality is essential to capture the meaning of message
In man-machine interaction or man-sensory data interaction:
ONLY WHEN the RECIPIENT is HUMAN may the message turn into information by transforming cognitive/emotional structures of that person
2005
Peter Ingwersen

9. The cognitive information conception – consequences 2:
Information does not have to be novel or true to the recipient
Information may verify the already known
As in repeated scientific experiments
… adding to the state of certainty
Falsification signifies a radical change of cognitive state
2005
Peter Ingwersen

10. The cognitive information concept – related to:
Wersig’s understandings (!971/73 – )
Belkins structured information concept (1978)
Brookes Information Equation (1980)
Buckland’s information matrix (1990):
… as Thing (condition 1 – after ‘cognitive free fall’)
… as Process (perception and effect) – and
… as Knowledge (the transformation result)
2005
Peter Ingwersen

11. Alternative information conceptions
Associated to Condition 1, like:
Salton: information equals (text) contents & has meaning; hence weighting of keys is relevant for IR (Zipf)
Associated to Condition 2, like:
Wersig: reduction of uncertainty; problematic situation in a social context; information gives meaning or sense.
Associated with the communication channel: Shannon:
No meaning or context; information equals signs/signals
2005
Peter Ingwersen

12. More general conceptions
Losee (1997):
Information is the result of a process – regardless whether actors are intentional or not (a kind of ‘universal effector’)
Cognitive concept a special case
Dretske (1981): information systems contain information (like ‘potential information’ in our concept), which may give meaning (sense) to recipient:
meaning goes beyond information
2005
Peter Ingwersen

13. Context & information acquisition
How much and which kind of context is required to be shared between sender and recipient for information acquisition?
How does social context and individual cognitive models (of the world) reflect on acquisition from un-intentional sensory data?
2005
Peter Ingwersen

14. Shared context & situations
The more context shared, and similarity of situations A & B. the higher probability that intended information becomes transferred
Minimum shared context: to make sense of message to recipient (perception & effect)
Necessary context may not be present at any given point of time
Has to be negotiated over time (learning/interaction
2005
Peter Ingwersen

15. Social context/domain vs. individual cognitive structure
IF it is believed that socio-cultural and organizational contexts – and their domain-dependent structures – determine the act of becoming informed …
THEN: Cognitive individual models reflect the social environment, implying that …
Development, alterations and progress of domains/theories would have hard times.
WE DO NOT BELIEVE in CONTEXTUAL DETERMINISM
2005
Peter Ingwersen

16. Social context/domain vs. individual cognitive structure 2
From a cognitive holistic view individual actors possess relative autonomy: they are influenced by socio-cultural … contexts, & their historic context (experiences)
In this framework, and via social interaction with other actors, individuals can contribute to change of a scientific domain or professional strategies; indeed paradigms
2005
Peter Ingwersen

17. Social context/domain vs. individual cognitive structure 3
This signifies a combined top-down and bottom-up perspective on information transfer and acquisition;
We call it:
The Principle of Complementary Social and Cognitive Influence
The individual actor serve as the determining factor, acting in context(s)
2005
Peter Ingwersen

18. Acquisition of information from sensory data
Information is basically a construct by association and interpretation by the recipient mind of the perceived message.
In IS&R messages are commonly intentional
How does intentionality then appear in un-intentional signals/sensory data from nature?
By the phenomenon that the recipient simultaneously acts as a sender, by:
Projecting his/her perspective/idea/hypothesis on the incoming signals (from nature)
2005
Peter Ingwersen

19. Sensory data becoming information – by projection
The perspective/idea = intentionality becomes the context shared between the same sender and recipient:
The recipient actor (say a scientist) superimposes a specific way of making sense (observing) and interpretation of the incoming signals (applying some methodology):
2005
Peter Ingwersen

20. Sensory data becoming information – by projection 2
Condition 1 of the cognitive information concept is fulfilled: signals become intentional signs that concur with the assumed expectations of the scholarly peers, later to review the work;
Naturally, the perspective/idea/hypothesis/theory/ methodology may indeed be ‘wrong’ or insufficient – and the outcome of the interpretations starting to contradict (what is perceived) as reality or other actors’ views.
2005
Peter Ingwersen

21. Daily-life and scientific information acquisition
In daily-life, information acquisition from sensory data ( the manipulation of signals) has no rules, and may lead to ‘interesting’ views of the world (the Earth is flat)
In scientific inquiries there are conventions varying from discipline to discipline – but developed by logics to ensure consistency (belief) between reality and (within) theory/interpretations
2005
Peter Ingwersen

22. Illustration of situation (From: The Turn
Illustration of situation (From: The Turn..By Ingwersen & Järvelin, Springer, )
2005
Peter Ingwersen

23. Consequences - conclusions
Both conditions of the cognitive information conceptions are fulfilled:
Same data set may provide:
Different interpretations and
Different information constructs – depending on the pre-suppositions of the actors (in contexts)
2005
Peter Ingwersen

24. Consequences – conclusions 2
May lead to verification of results obtained by others, to falsification, or to inter-subjectivism or ‘schools’ (in certain academic disciplines)
May indeed lead to social constructivism and scientific relativism – depending on use of the scientific conventions of inquiry and sense of truth and logic
We have shown that the original cognitive information conception for LIS by Ingwersen (1992) can be generalized to cover also information transfer and acquisition from non-intentional sensory data
2005
Peter Ingwersen