Concept Mapping as a Methodology to Develop Insights on Cognition During Collaborative Information Seeking

The importance of collaborative information seeking (CIS) during team decision-making is starting to be examined within the human factors community. Without the ability to collaborate to seek and retrieve information, a team cannot make accurate decisions. One area of particular importance to CIS is individual and team cognition. Through previous research, we know that cognition is critical to the performance of many collaborative efforts. Yet, there has been little research on the relationship of cognition to CIS. Consequently, appropriate methods to use and how to use them have not been clearly identified. One useful approach to understanding cognition during CIS is to implement a concept mapping methodology. In this paper, we discuss concept mapping and utilize it in a laboratory study focused on understanding the role of cognition during CIS. Through analysis of CIS oriented individual and team concept maps, we gained insights into how people cognitively perceive CIS.