What Is Information Foraging?
Unlike cognitive engineering models of the early 1990s where tasks were analyzed in well-defined domains and user interfaces, people seeking information are largely shaped by the structure of the content, that is, their information environment. People routinely sift massive volumes of information under deadline pressure to make complex search decisions under uncertain conditions. We are constantly evaluating the expected costs and benefits of our actions in this largely probabilistic textured information environment (Brunswik 1952) to maximize our gain of valuable information. Pirolli calls this behavior information foraging. Information foraging strategies optimize the use of our time and effort to gain valuable information. We satisfice, getting a good enough outcome under uncertain and limited conditions (bounded rationality). As in the real world where animals forage for food, the online world of the Web is a patchy environment with information arranged into clumps. Patches of usef
