Nature of Relevance in

Information Science

Robyn Ward
LI802XO
Time is a River without Banks, also known as Time has no Banks (1930-9) Marc Chagall
Scanned image from Chagall: The Art of Dreams by Daniel Marchesseau.
What Is Relevance?

In the box below describe the painting and any

thoughts that it may evoke.

What does this teach us about relevance?

Relevance is intuitively understood but difficult to define.

Saracevic’s Definitions of relevance:

Relevance is the (A) gage of relevance of an (B) aspect of

relevance existing between an (C) object judged and a (D) frame
of reference as judged by an (E) assessor, where:
(A) (B) (C) (D) (E)
Measure Utility Document Question Requestor
Degree Matching Document Question Intermediary
representation Representation
Extent Informativeness Reference Research Stage Expert
Judgment Satisfaction Textual form Information Need User
Estimate Appropriateness Information provided Information Used Person
Appraisal Usefulness Fact Point of View Judge
Relation Correspondence Article Request Information
Specialist
Schamber, L., Eisenberg, M.B., and Nilan, M.S. (1990). A re-examination of relevance: toward a dynamic, situational definition.
Information Processing & Management, 26(6), 761.

For example:
Relevance is the Measure of a Correspondence existing between a
Document and an Information Need as judged by a User.

Complete a definition of relevance:

Relevance is the _______________ of a _______________

existing between a _______________ and a _______________
as judged by a _______________.

Mizarro’s Partial Order of Relevances : Four Dimensions

1st Dimension
• Document : physical entity that is obtained after search

• Surrogate: representation of document (example: abstract, extract, etc)

• Information: what user receives when reading a document

2nd Dimension
• Problem: requires information to be solved

• Information Need: a representation of the problem in the mind of the user which may
be different than the actual need.
• Request : representation of information need of the user in natural language

• Query : a representation of the information in “system” language (i.e. Boolean)

3rd Dimension
• Topic: subject area in which user is interested

• Task : activity involving the use of the retrieved documents

• Context: affects how the search takes place and the evaluation of the results (outside
factors such as time, situation, etc.)
th
4 Dimension
• Time: various instances from the beginning of a problem to its solution
 Relevance has been referred to as Multi-dimensional and
dynamic. Why?

Relevance has also been classified as Objective or

Subjective. What are the differences?

5 Manifestations of Relevance:

Algorithmic or System Relevance: system-oriented and objective. It is the

relation between a query and the information objects in a system. Criteria for system
relevance are the comparative effectiveness of the terms in a search.

Topical or Subject Relevance: system and user-oriented/objective and subjective.

It is the relation between the subject or topic in a query and the topic or subject covered
by texts retrieved by the system. Aboutness is criteria used for determining topical
relevance.

Cognitive Relevance or Pertinence: user-oriented and subjective. It is the relation

between the state of knowledge and cognitive information need of a user, information
retrieved, and system. Criteria used for this would be novelty, quality, informativeness,
and correspondence of information.

Situational Relevance or Utility: user-oriented and subjective. It is the relation

between the situation, task, or problem and the information objects retrieved by the
system. Criteria used for this would be usefulness of information in decision-making,
appropriateness of information in problem solving, and reduction of uncertainty.

Motivational or Affective Relevance: user-oriented and subjective. It is the

relation between the intents, goals, and motivations of a user, and texts retrieved by a
system. The criteria for this are satisfaction, success, and accomplishment.
“As a cognitive notion relevance involves an interactive, dynamic establishment of a
relation by inference, with intentions toward a context”--Saracevic

5 relevance manifestations presented in conjunction with 5 relevance attributes

Attributes Algorithmic Topical Cognitive Situational Motivational

Relation QueryInformation Subject/topic State of Perceived Essentially is
Objects expressed in query knowledge/cognitive Situation, included in
information information need task or the attribute
objects information objects problem of intention
information
objects as
perceived
by user
Intention System dependent User/assessor Highly personal and Determined
Intent behind expectations Subjective by user
algorithm Intent behind query Related to under
information need, influence of
intentions and work task,
motivations previous
experience,
environment
and time
Context Search engine All types of All types of All types of All types of
performance subjective subjective relevance subjective subjective
relevance or or context dependent relevance or relevance or
context dependent context context
dependent dependent
Inference Functions of Interpretation Subjective and User’s
weighting and individualized ability to
ranking process of utilize
interpretation, objects in a
selection and meaningful
filtering way
Interaction Automatic relevance Relevance Time dependent to a Extent to
feedback or judgments are time very large extent which
modification of dependent information
query Increase as learn objects are
more utilized for
specific
purpose
Affective Relevance influences/affects all subjective relevance types/manifestations
Let’s put what we have discussed into practice…

Photograph of two Nez Perce women on horseback taken

by Erskine Wood at the Nespilem Agency, winter 1893/94.
From the Wood Family Collection. (Courtesy of Lewis & Clark College Special Collections/Archives
division)

Who would have interest in the photo?

What was the information seeker’s query or method of retrieving the image?

How would the image be pertinent to the information seeker?

What is the situational relevance for using this image?

Describe the motivational relevance for retrieving this image.

Cognition and Relevance
Learning is about more than simply acquiring new knowledge and insights; it is also
crucial to unlearn old knowledge that has outlived its relevance. Thus, forgetting is
probably at least as important as learning. --Gary Ryan Blair

Definition from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term cognition (Latin: cognoscere, "to know") is used in several loosely related ways
to refer to a facility for the human-like processing of information, applying knowledge
and changing preferences. Cognition/(cognitive processes) can be natural and artificial,
conscious and not conscious; therefore, they are analyzed from different perspectives and
in different contexts, in neurology, psychology, philosophy, systemics and computer
science. The concept of cognition is closely related to such abstract concepts as mind,
reasoning, perception, intelligence, learning, and many others that describe numerous
capabilities of human mind and expected properties of artificial or synthetic intelligence.

Connecting our cognitive styles with the concepts of Relevance

What is your Myers-Briggs Personality Type?

Introvert/Extrovert; Sensing/Intuitive; Thinking/Feeling; Judging/Perceiving

What is your learning style?

Visual; Auditory; Tactile/Kinesthetic

How would these affect your relevance judgments in information searching?