{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,20]],"date-time":"2026-05-20T16:46:17Z","timestamp":1779295577443,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":15,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2011,2,3]],"date-time":"2011-02-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1296691200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":94,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Proc of Assoc for Info"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2010,11]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>This paper reports our investigation of differences in users' behavior between difficult and easy search tasks, as well as how these differences vary with different types of tasks. We also report how behavioral predictors of task difficulty vary across task types. In addition, we explored how whole\u2010task\u2010session level user behaviors and within\u2010task\u2010session level behaviors differ in task difficulty prediction. Data were collected in a controlled lab experiment with 48 participants, each completing 6 search tasks of three types: single\u2010fact finding, multiple\u2010fact finding and multiple\u2010piece information gathering. Results show that task type affects the relationships between task difficulty and user behaviors and that prediction of task difficulty should take account of task type. Results also show that both whole\u2010session level and within\u2010session level user behaviors can serve as task difficulty predictors. Whole\u2010session level variables show higher prediction accuracy, but within\u2010session level factors have the advantage of enabling real\u2010time prediction. These findings can help search systems predict task difficulty and adapt to users.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/meet.14504701173","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,2,3]],"date-time":"2011-02-03T16:35:46Z","timestamp":1296750946000},"page":"1-10","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":30,"title":["Predicting task difficulty for different task types"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"47","author":[{"given":"Jingjing","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jacek","family":"Gwizdka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chang","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nicholas J.","family":"Belkin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2011,2,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_8_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Aula A. Khan R.&Guan Z.(2010).How does search behavior change as search becomes more difficult?Proceedings of CHI '10 35\u201344.","DOI":"10.1145\/1753326.1753333"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.10064"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0306-4573(95)80035-R"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gwizdka J. Spence I.(2006).What can searching behavior tell us about the difficulty of information tasks?A study of Web navigation. Proceedings of ASIST '06.","DOI":"10.1002\/meet.14504301167"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gwizdka J.(2008).Revisiting search task difficulty: Behavioral and individual difference measures. Proceedings of ASIST '08.","DOI":"10.1002\/meet.2008.1450450249"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_7_1","volume-title":"The turn: Integration of information seeking and retrieval in context","author":"Ingwersen P.","year":"2005"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_8_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kelly D. &Belkin N.J.(2004).Display time as implicit feedback: Understanding task effects. Proceedings of SIGIR '04 Sheffield UK 377\u2013384.","DOI":"10.1145\/1008992.1009057"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/asi.20590"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kim J.(2006).Task difficulty as a predictor and indicator of web searching interaction. Proceedings of CHI '06 959\u2013964.","DOI":"10.1145\/1125451.1125636"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_11_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ipm.2008.07.005"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu J.&Belkin N.J.(2010).Personalizing information retrieval for multi\u2010session tasks: The roles of task stage and task type. Proceedings of SIGIR '10.","DOI":"10.1145\/1835449.1835457"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu J. Cole M. Liu C. Bierig R. Gwizdka J. Belkin N.J. Zhang J. &Zhang X.(2010).Search behaviors in different task types. Proceedings of JCDL '10.","DOI":"10.1145\/1816123.1816134"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu J. Liu C. Gwizdka J. &Belkin N.(2010).Can search systems detect users' task difficulty? Some behavioral signals. Proceedings of SIGIR '10.","DOI":"10.1145\/1835449.1835645"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_15_1","unstructured":"Toms E. MacKenzie T. Jordan C. O'Brien H. Freund L. Toze S.et al. (2007).How task affects information search. Workshop Pre\u2010proceedings of in Initiative for the Evaluation of XML Retrieval (INEX) 337\u2013341."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_16_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"White R. &Kelly D.(2006).A study of the effects of personalization and task information on implicit feedback performance. Proceedings of CIKM '06 297\u2013306.","DOI":"10.1145\/1183614.1183659"}],"container-title":["Proceedings of the American Society for Information Science and Technology"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/api.wiley.com\/onlinelibrary\/tdm\/v1\/articles\/10.1002%2Fmeet.14504701173","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/api.wiley.com\/onlinelibrary\/tdm\/v1\/articles\/10.1002%2Fmeet.14504701173","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/meet.14504701173","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,20]],"date-time":"2025-10-20T14:55:48Z","timestamp":1760972148000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/meet.14504701173"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2010,11]]},"references-count":15,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2010,11]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1002\/meet.14504701173"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/meet.14504701173","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0044-7870","1550-8390"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0044-7870","type":"print"},{"value":"1550-8390","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2010,11]]}}}