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A human information behavior approach to a philosophy of information.


ABSTRACT

THIS PAPER OUTLINES THE RELATION between philosophy of information (PI) and human information behavior (HIB Hib
abbr.
Haemophilus influenzae type b
). In this paper, we first briefly outline the basic constructs and approaches of PI and HIB. We argue that a strong relation exists between PI and HIB, as both are exploring the concept of information and premise information as a fundamental concept basic to human existence. We then exemplify that a heuristic A method of problem solving using exploration and trial and error methods. Heuristic program design provides a framework for solving the problem in contrast with a fixed set of rules (algorithmic) that cannot vary.

1.
 approach to PI integrates the HIB view of information as a cognitive human-initiated process by presenting a specific cognitive architecture (architecture) cognitive architecture - A computer architecure involving non-deterministic, multiple inference processes, as found in neural networks. Cognitive architectures model the human brain and contrast with single processor computers.  for information initiation based on modular notion from HIB/evolutionary psychology and the vacuum mechanism from PI.

INTRODUCTION

Many disciplines are grappling with the concept of information in the information age. Researchers in library and information science (LIS LIS - Langage Implementation Systeme.

A predecessor of Ada developed by Ichbiah in 1973. It was influenced by Pascal's data structures and Sue's control structures. A type declaration can have a low-level implementation specification.
) are using tools from hermeneutics hermeneutics, the theory and practice of interpretation. During the Reformation hermeneutics came into being as a special discipline concerned with biblical criticism. , cybernetics cybernetics [Gr.,=steersman], term coined by American mathematician Norbert Wiener to refer to the general analysis of control systems and communication systems in living organisms and machines. , and semiotics semiotics or semiology, discipline deriving from the American logician C. S. Peirce and the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. It has come to mean generally the study of any cultural product (e.g., a text) as a formal system of signs.  to define its parameters and nature (Herold, 2001). However, there is also a need to examine the subject from a broader perspective, as Herold (2001) suggests within the emerging field called philosophy of information (PI).

As well as providing LIS with a broader perspective on the question of information, PI provides an alternative to LIS's reliance on computer science and its diverse theoretical orientations such as the philosophy of computer science, the philosophy of computing or computation, the philosophy of artificial intelligence
See also:


The philosophy of artificial intelligence concerns such questions as:
  • What is intelligence? How can one recognize its presence and applications?
 (AI), etc. (Floridi, 2002b). The primary proponent One who offers or proposes.

A proponent is a person who comes forward with an a item or an idea. A proponent supports an issue or advocates a cause, such as a proponent of a will.


PROPONENT, eccl. law.
 of PI is Floridi (2002a, b). Floridi argues that AI acted as a "Trojan horse See Trojan.

Trojan Horse

hollow horse concealed soldiers, enabling them to enter and capture Troy. [Gk. Myth.: Iliad]

See : Deceit



(application, security) Trojan horse
," bringing a computational/informational paradigm into philosophy (i.e., with its own subjects, methods, and models, and its own perspective on traditional philosophical concepts such as the mind, consciousness, experience, knowledge, truth, etc. (Bynum & Moor, 1998). As a result of AI, information "acquired the nature of a primary phenomenon" (Floridi, 2002b). However, in PI, information, not AI's primary, concept computation, becomes the more fundamental concept.

Our paper discusses the relationship between PI and human information behavior (HIB), which is a developing perspective in LIS. A strong relation exists between PI and HIB, as both explore the concept of information as a fundamental human concept that defines human existence and gives life meaning. Specifically, we argue that the HIB perspective or approach facilitates the occurrence of LIS's role as applied PI, as suggested by Herold (2001) and Floridi (2002a).

As an applied form of PI, the HIB perspective in LIS should concern itself with the design of services and systems that facilitate the role of information in human existence. In effect, this widens information retrieval information retrieval

Recovery of information, especially in a database stored in a computer. Two main approaches are matching words in the query against the database index (keyword searching) and traversing the database using hypertext or hypermedia links.
 (IR) design's traditional emphasis on the focused information seeking/searching behavior of individuals, predominantly in the school or workplace. The Internet and its ability to offer information to a wide range of people at work, school, but most importantly Adv. 1. most importantly - above and beyond all other consideration; "above all, you must be independent"
above all, most especially
 at home, have widened LIS's definition of its role to the home information situation as well for example, the seeking of health information that is widely available on the Web. Other forms of home information-seeking behavior, such as surfing the Web without real purpose and with constantly shifting tactical goals, are widening LIS's definition of its role still further (e.g., Spink et al., in press).

HIB looks at the entire human condition, thus expanding information and its role in human life to its widest possible level. Why do we seek information all the time, often without apparent reason, often without even being aware of it, seemingly for its own sake? HIB answers the question by linking the human condition and information together. Information and information acquisition are seen as fundamental to human existence, enabling us to constantly adapt so that we can survive in an ever-changing physical and social environment (Spink & Cole, in press). This broad, fundamental perspective makes HIB the ideal LIS perspective through which the tenets and theoretical constructs of PI can be applied to theoretical and real-world information-related problems.

In this article, we link the basic constructs and approaches of PI to parallel constructs in HIB. We further argue that a heuristic approach to PI should account for and integrate the HIB view of information as a cognitive human-initiated process. We then provide an example of an HIB approach to information as a human-initiated cognitive process, based on HIB's developing modular approach to human information/cognitive architecture.

PI

Floridi's approach to a PI starts from the view that information in the information age has become "a concept as fundamental and philosophically important as 'being,' 'knowledge,' 'life,' 'intelligence,' 'meaning,' or 'moral good and evil.' All these pivotal concepts are interdependent in·ter·de·pen·dent  
adj.
Mutually dependent: "Today, the mission of one institution can be accomplished only by recognizing that it lives in an interdependent world with conflicts and overlapping interests" 
 with information and are equally worthy of autonomous investigation" (Floridi, 2002a). Therefore, Floridi (2002a) suggests that such a fundamental concept requires a new field of research.

Floridi defines the emerging field of PI research as the "philosophical field concerned with (a) the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilization, and sciences and (b) the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems" (Floridi, 2002b, p. 137). Included in (a) and (b) is a prescriptive pre·scrip·tive  
adj.
1. Sanctioned or authorized by long-standing custom or usage.

2. Making or giving injunctions, directions, laws, or rules.

3. Law Acquired by or based on uninterrupted possession.
 function: "PI is prescriptive about, and legislates on, what may count as information, and how information should be adequately created, processed, managed, and used" (Floridi, 2002a, p. 44).

Information's Conceptual Nature in PI

For information's conceptual nature in a PI, Floridi gives basic principles of information and its role in the human condition. For our present purposes, we define the human condition as the set of human needs and the consequences that occur as a result of those needs. According to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3.
 Floridi (2002b), the human mind "needs to make sense of its environment by continuously investing data (affordances) with meaning" (p. 129). Floridi gives reasons for this need that we will not go into here. The process through which humans make meaning out of our physical world is set off by four conceptual thrusts.

* A metasemanticization of human narrative by putting oneself into the narrative.

* A sharing of the narrative with others through language and other information entities like documents.

* A dephysicalization of nature whereby the physical world is virtualized when we include it, and all the objects in it, in the narrative. We first manipulate objects by manipulating their virtual form in the narrative.

* A hypostatization hy·pos·ta·tize  
tr.v. hy·pos·ta·tized, hy·pos·ta·tiz·ing, hy·pos·ta·tiz·es
To ascribe material existence to.



[From Greek hupostatos, placed under, substantial, from
 (embodiment) of the concepts, in the narrative, we devise to explain reality, making them as real, in the narrative, as objects from the physical world.

Information, defined as meaningful data (Floridi, 2002b), plays a predominant role in these four conceptual thrusts, creating three "dynamics" or subsidiary processes by which the conceptual thrusts are carried out. This includes what are called "information life cycles," or the stages "through which information can pass, from its initial occurrence to its final utilization...." (Floridi, 2002b, p. 138). Floridi mentions briefly, when citing Dummett (1993, p. 186), that information, because it is partly a perceptual process, may start "without one's necessarily having a grasp of the proposition which embodies it."

LIS as Applied PI

Floridi (2002a) outlines the role LIS can play in applying the PI's conceptual principles by first indicating LIS's evolution toward a view of information and the role that information plays that is similar to the history of philosophy, and its evolution toward PI. In the history of philosophy, information has become a more fundamental concept than knowledge, and this due to a long line of philosophers beginning in the seventeenth century who made the switch from focusing on the nature of the knowledge object--i.e., metaphysics--to the relation between object and knowing subject--i.e., epistemology epistemology (ĭpĭs'təmŏl`əjē) [Gr.,=knowledge or science], the branch of philosophy that is directed toward theories of the sources, nature, and limits of knowledge. Since the 17th cent. .

Floridi (2002a) outlines a similar switch in LIS, relying on Shera (1961). Social epistemology Social epistemology is a broad set of approaches to the study of knowledge, all of which construe human knowledge as a collective achievement. Social epistemologists may be found working in many of the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences, most commonly in philosophy  (SE), argues Shera, is divided into the Sociology of Knowledge The sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies. (Compare history of ideas.  (SoK) and the Epistemology of Social Knowledge (ESK ESK Esperanto-Societo Kebekia (Quebec Esperanto Society)
ESK Ekonomik Sosyal Konsey
ESK Eisenschweinkader (German bicycle club)
ESK Electronic SWO (Staff Weather Officer) Kit
). LIS emphasizes the latter, which is the "critical and conceptual study of the social (multi-agents) dimensions of knowledge" (Floridi, 2002a, p. 39). Shera believed that LIS is the discipline that manages knowledge, but particularly "the way in which knowledge is disseminated through a society and influences group behavior" (Shera, 1961). Shera believed that the role of LIS was an applied ESK.

Floridi (2002a), however, believes a conflict exists between ESK, which is knowledge-centric, and LIS, which is actually information sources-centered. He describes the difference as LIS being concerned with the role of information sources in enabling knowledge to occur. Floridi, following Herold (2001), believes that because ESK is knowledge-centric rather than information-centric, therefore, PI would be a better philosophical home for LIS.

Since Brookes (1980), LIS has used Popper's (1975) Three Worlds concept to describe a more general theory of information exchange. Briefly, Popper's notion of Three Worlds describes the problem solver grasping for understanding (World 2) of the physical world (World 1) to produce the concepts and ideas that make up knowledge about that physical world in recorded documents (World 3). It also works the other way, describing a person's interaction with World 3 in books and documents to acquire information/knowledge about the physical world (World 1).

Before LIS focused on the production, organization, and dissemination (distribution) of recorded information, primarily document production, organization, and delivery. The benefit of making information fundamental is that it recognizes the two positions mentioned by Shera and the two forces that remain in LIS. First, the social production and distribution of information. Second, the individual's psychological acquisition and production of information. By making information fundamental for survival, they join at one point.

The traditional perspective has the observer examining World 1. However, the place of previous work on the part of the world this observer is examining has become paramount. The researcher finds some sort of problem in World 1 for which he or she wishes to do more research. The researcher first goes to the literature to investigate the problem (World 3). The process or stages whereby the problem solver reaches for an understanding of World 1 via recorded knowledge is theoretically defined by Popper An early Unix POP server, which was written at the University of California at Berkeley.  (1975) in his schema of conjectures This is an incomplete list of mathematical conjectures. They are divided into four sections, according to their status in 2007.

See also:
  • Erdős conjecture, which lists conjectures of Paul Erdős and his collaborators
  • Unsolved problems in mathematics
 and refutations:

[P.sub.1] >> TT >> EE >> [P.sub.2] and repeat until problem solved ...

[P.sub.1] is a conceptualization con·cep·tu·al·ize  
v. con·cep·tu·al·ized, con·cep·tu·al·iz·ing, con·cep·tu·al·iz·es

v.tr.
To form a concept or concepts of, and especially to interpret in a conceptual way:
 of the problem. In the Popper schema, the problem solver begins with a conceptualization of the problem ([P.sub.1]), then interacts with the world of information objects (World 3), including text, to arrive at a state of understanding, a conjecture CONJECTURE. Conjectures are ideas or notions founded on probabilities without any demonstration of their truth. Mascardus has defined conjecture: "rationable vestigium latentis veritatis, unde nascitur opinio sapientis;" or a slight degree of credence arising from evidence too weak or too , or tentative theory (TT) about the problem and its solution. In the final stage of the schema, the problem solver tests the conjecture for error elimination (EE) before arriving at a revised conceptualization of the problem ([P.sub.2])" The problem solver repeats this process until the problem is either solved or he/she quits quits  
adj.
On even terms with by payment or requital: I am finally quits with the loan.



[Middle English, probably alteration (influenced by Medieval Latin
 the problem.

The problem Popper's schema poses is the first round conceptualization of the problem ([P.sub.1]), which results from the person interacting with both World 1 and the objectification ob·jec·ti·fy  
tr.v. ob·jec·ti·fied, ob·jec·ti·fy·ing, ob·jec·ti·fies
1. To present or regard as an object: "Because we have objectified animals, we are able to treat them impersonally" 
 of theories, concepts, and principles from the human study of World 1 in the human knowledge record (World 3). In Herold's (2001) description, the preproblem actualization actualization Psychiatry The realization of one's full potential  state and information is pre- or a-categorical:
   Information is: A-categorical. Information happens without
   pre-definition into certain or rigid structures, orders, or classes
   in any exclusive or preferred way. Information is rich in potential
   taxonomies and capable of varying interpretation schematically,
   while at the same time conditional and dependent in the sense of not
   having an assigned final status. (p. 1)


Both PI and HIB look at and comment on the information problem conceptualizing stage through a perspective of theories, concepts, and principles that offer LIS solutions to users' information problems:

* The PI principle of human sense-making that drives the individual to invest unmeaningful data in the environment with meaning, but in HIB it also has the evolutionary function of enabling human adaptation to changes in the environment (signaled by data in the environment that has not been previously invested with meaning) for purposes of ensuring human survival.

* The concept of information being a process (Buckland, 1991), the instantiation (programming) instantiation - Producing a more defined version of some object by replacing variables with values (or other variables).

1. In object-oriented programming, producing a particular object from its class template.
 of which is started by some sort of interaction with the environment (Popper's World 1), or recorded knowledge or other information objects (Popper's World 3); this process can be divided into phases (in HIB, e.g., Popper's [1975] schema of conjectures and refutations), stages, or cycles (in PI, cf. Floridi, 2002b, p. 138).

* The shared PI-HIB concept of a data-information-knowledge continuum to describe the whole range of HIB, with data being more important in the early, conceptualization phase of human meaning creation (PI), problem solving problem solving

Process involved in finding a solution to a problem. Many animals routinely solve problems of locomotion, food finding, and shelter through trial and error.
, and adaptation to new or transformed features of the environment (HIB), and knowledge being more important in the later phase of meaning-knowledge production and human adaptation to the environment, for example, in Popper's (1975) EE phase in his schema of conjectures and refutations (described above) where a researcher's conjecture is tested before it is placed by the researcher in the knowledge canon.

* The HIB principle of uncertainty, an information theoretic concept (Shannon & Weaver, 1949), but increasingly used in LIS by Kuhlthau (1993) and Wilson et al. (2002).

To develop this issue further, the next section of the paper discusses and extends the Spink and Cole (2002) unified theory Unified Theory may refer to:
  • Unified Field Theory, a theory in physics that attempts to combine all forces
  • Unified Theory, a band consisting of members of Blind Melon and Pearl Jam
 of HIB as the human-information basis for the application of principles and concepts from PI.

UNIFIED THEORY OF HIB

The Spink and Cole (in press) unified theory of HIB provides a basis for applying PI theories, concepts, and principles to LIS methods and practice, particularly the methods and practice of creating systems to facilitate user access to information via IR systems.

The Spink and Cole HIB theory integrates the four principal LIS information approaches that framework user information-seeking: the user as problem solver, sense-maker, everyday life information-seeker, and information forager for·age  
n.
1. Food for domestic animals; fodder.

2. The act of looking or searching for food or provisions.

v. for·aged, for·ag·ing, for·ag·es

v.intr.
1.
; HIB accomplishes the integration by using theories, concepts, and principles from evolutionary psychology evolutionary psychology
n.
The study of the psychological adaptations of humans to the changing physical and social environment, especially of changes in brain structure, cognitive mechanisms, and behavioral differences among individuals.
 to widen the traditional LIS perspective to a perspective on the total human information condition.

The principles and issues that have arisen from recent advances in evolutionary psychology widen the traditional LIS focus on information-seeking and problem-solving, not only by indicating that other forms of HIB are ignored by the current LIS information-seeking paradigm, but also by setting a prehistorical framework for the human information condition, one that operates as a constant throughout the history of human-information interaction. The most important implication of the evolutionary psychology perspective, however, is its elevation in status of information need from a secondary to a fundamental human need, due to the primacy that evolutionary psychology gives to information foraging Information foraging is a theory that applies the ideas from optimal foraging theory to understand how human users search for information. The theory is based on the assumption that, when searching for information, humans use "built-in" foraging mechanisms that evolved to help our  for human adaptation and survival.

The Spink and Cole HIB theory utilizes the evolutionary psychology perspective on the human condition to integrate four information-seeking approaches. The integrated theory of HIB attempts to be a global, more fundamental theory of information behavior, in which the four current information science information behavior approaches find their place as part of a description of the human "information condition."

The Spink and Cole HIB theory is based on some sort of human state (preattentional, a problem state, a need state, etc.) being actualized ac·tu·al·ize  
v. ac·tu·al·ized, ac·tu·al·iz·ing, ac·tu·al·iz·es

v.tr.
1. To realize in action or make real: "More flexible life patterns could . . .
 by uncertainty, which acts as an energy input moving the human state along a "data-information-knowledge" continuum. High uncertainty is linked to a preattentional state of information foraging for adaptation and survival, while low uncertainty is linked to information behaviors whose purpose is knowledge (e.g., the common sense precepts by which most of us live in everyday life, or make sense of life).

The next section of the paper discusses the implications of HIB's adaptation of evolutionary psychology's modular cognitive architecture on HIB and PI.

IMPLICATIONS OF MODULAR COGNITIVE ARCHITECTURE ON HIB PROCESSES

Modular: Metaphor: The Process of Information Acquisition in Evolutionary Psychology

Homo sapiens Homo sapiens

(Latin; “wise man”)

Species to which all modern human beings belong. The oldest known fossil remains date to c. 120,000 years ago—or much earlier (c.
 are unique among species in their ability to think symbolically, representing the world around them in terms of symbolic images This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.

Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.
This article has been tagged since September 2007.
. This ability allows us to think in the past and to think about, even plan and therefore influence, our future. The ability to control our destiny through predictive thinking gives us a decided advantage in terms of survival and adaptation to a changing environment.

Two views are taken about how we evolved to our present state: (a) that our ability to represent the world symbolically was gradual, created by culture or (b) that 30,000 to 50,000 years ago a chance mutation occurred in human cognition Human cognition is the study of how the human brain thinks. As a subject of study, human cognition tends to be more than only theoretical in that its theories lead to working models that demonstrate behavior similar to human thought.  that led to a sudden change in how we were hard-wired, giving us the ability to think in symbolic representations (Mithen, 1996, p. 42); this, in turn, led to our transformation from being one among many species competing for limited resources to a species so clever that it is now almost a "geological force" in the world (Wilford, 2002). We take the second view in this article, that a dramatic revolution in human cognition resulted from a chance mutation occurring in our cognitive apparatus some 30,000-50,000 years ago that established the way humans think and conduct HIBs up to the present day.

The chance mutation led to the human ability to think representationally, or symbolically, leading to language, art, religion, information behavior, and eventually science. It also allowed humans to think in the past, construct problem solutions over time in the present, and think into the future, via these representations. These representations also allowed humans to predict behavior based on past experiences. The ways these representations were constructed induced Homo sapiens to engage in a certain kind of information behavior that we will broadly define here as (a) information behavior for some immediate purpose and (b) information behavior for no immediate purpose, but which, in the context of our hunter-gatherer ancestor, allowed Homo sapiens to adapt their behavior and survive. It does this through its cognitive architecture, which has several important features according to modular theorists.

The first feature is that the cognitive architecture is designed to be adaptive. Essential to the notion of adaptation for survival is the ability to transform your way of thinking so that in effect you see the world or at least a part of the world differently, which means that information acquisition is controlled by a cognitive architecture that can be described as a generative gen·er·a·tive
adj.
1. Having the ability to originate, produce, or procreate.

2. Of or relating to the production of offspring.



generative

pertaining to reproduction.
 system (Boden, 1998). Tooby and Cosmides (1992) describe a modular architecture capable of generating new information about the subtle kinds of issues related to social interaction, by combining together from disparate pieces of nonpurposive data both consciously and unconsciously collected by the hunter-gatherer over the course of time. The architecture must be able to bring these floating pieces of data together, perhaps because of an entirely new stimulus that causes them to come together (Renfrew, 1998), resulting in the production of a transformed or new way of looking at the world, adaptation, and increased chances of survival.

Lake (1998) divides these adaptations into both improbable and impossible transformations. An example of improbabilist learning or association (Renfrew, 1998) is the transformation of the hunter-gatherer's use of the horse as a food source to using it as traction or transportation. This occurred sometime before 1200 B.C. when we first see these representations depicted in artifacts artifacts

see specimen artifacts.
. Before this time, the horse was domesticated do·mes·ti·cate  
tr.v. do·mes·ti·cat·ed, do·mes·ti·cat·ing, do·mes·ti·cates
1. To cause to feel comfortable at home; make domestic.

2. To adopt or make fit for domestic use or life.

3.
a.
 as a source of food, and oxen oxen

adult castrated male of any breed of Bos spp.
 pulled the carts. Funerals in complex hunter-gatherer societies were used as social messaging events, to create alliances "by advertising the success of the deceased's kin group" (Schulting, 1998). The change in using the horse from food to mode of traction occurred as a result of funeral ceremonies where horses were used to pull ceremonial carts with the bodies of rich men to indicate to other members of the group the rich man's social position.

Based on impossibilist learning or association, Bradley (1998) believes that the change in funeral monuments from monuments that did not require the alteration of the natural state of the raw materials used--like using boulders or large rocks that required only accurate planning and measurement to transport them to the site and position them--to where the raw material itself was modified, constituted a radical transformation in the structure of man's relationship with nature and the natural world.

In the evolutionary psychology view of human development and behavior we take here, what allowed improbabilist and impossiblist learning or change to occur was a chance genetic mutation Noun 1. genetic mutation - (genetics) any event that changes genetic structure; any alteration in the inherited nucleic acid sequence of the genotype of an organism
chromosomal mutation, mutation
 30,000-50,000 years ago, which caused a change in the hard-wiring of Homo sapiens. Mithen (1996) hypothesizes about the effect of this chance mutation. He believes, essentially, that the various intelligence modules of the Homo sapiens cognitive apparatus, formerly separated and independent, suddenly developed an integration mechanism that allowed knowledge and memory data from one module to flow into another.

Integration Mechanism in Modular Thinking

The mechanism of creating symbolic markings is due to, according to Mithen's thesis, the modular architecture of human intelligence. Because of this architecture, the various types of thinking have their own separate modules (made up of module specific rules and memory links). Mithen (1996) hypothesizes that the Homo sapiens cognitive mechanism is divided into four intelligence modules, each in charge of a certain kind of intelligence cognition cognition

Act or process of knowing. Cognition includes every mental process that may be described as an experience of knowing (including perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, and reasoning), as distinguished from an experience of feeling or of willing.
, but all connected to a general intelligence base (containing general-purpose learning and decision-making rules). The four Mithen intelligence modules are

* a technical intelligence module (tool making, technology);

* a linguistic intelligence module (language acquisition and use);

* a social intelligence module (group dynamics group dynamics: see group psychotherapy. , Machiavellian behavior, empathetic em·pa·thet·ic  
adj.
Empathic.



empa·theti·cal·ly adv.
 behavior); and

* a natural history intelligence module (about animals, plants, and geography; mental maps and hunting behavior).

According to one theory, some chance mutation in human cognitive architecture, called the Big Bang big bang

Model of the origin of the universe, which holds that it emerged from a state of extremely high temperature and density in an explosive expansion 10 billion–15 billion years ago.
, allowed data or information to flow between the modules, creating a type of metaphorical thinking (as data or information from the sender module would, by definition, be metaphorical or introduce metaphorical thinking of some sort to the destination module in this flow). The modular notion of cognitive architecture and the flow of data from one module into another, when seeking information for adaptation and survival, are based on broad definition of metaphor as involving all types of human thinking that transform unmeaningful data in the environment into meaningful information.

Metaphorical Thinking

The current research approaches in LIS are largely attentional--that is, they assume that even if we are passively seeking information, we are paying attention Noun 1. paying attention - paying particular notice (as to children or helpless people); "his attentiveness to her wishes"; "he spends without heed to the consequences"
attentiveness, heed, regard
 to the stimuli on some level, like acquiring information while watching TV or aimlessly aim·less  
adj.
Devoid of direction or purpose.



aimless·ly adv.

aim
 surfing the Internet. Evolutionary psychology, on the other hand, posits a type of information foraging where information is acquired without attending to it. Perhaps unattended-to information or data is somehow attached to other information we are attending to. This may be the basis of what we have termed here "metaphorical thinking."

In effect, all representational rep·re·sen·ta·tion·al  
adj.
Of or relating to representation, especially to realistic graphic representation.



rep
 thinking and communication are metaphorical. When we attempt to represent reality using symbolic forms, like a cartographic car·tog·ra·phy  
n.
The art or technique of making maps or charts.



[French cartographie : carte, map (from Old French, from Latin charta, carta, paper made from papyrus
 mapping of a geographical area, the representational nature of the symbols used to achieve this is necessarily metaphorical--i.e., the blue color used to indicate an ocean, a line to represent the coastline and the green color used on the other side of the line to indicate land; all these symbols are metaphors trying to represent the actual physical form.

Lakoff and Johnson (1980) suggest that "the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another." Metaphors are not mental models. However, metaphors are an important phase between intuitive model formation and mental models (Hill & Levenhagen, 1995), allowing us to fill in missing details in our comprehension of a concept, event, or object (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). They thus help us to bridge the gap between what we do and do not know (Hill & Levenhagen, 1995). Metaphors can form a link between left- and right-brain thought, or theory-in-use and theory.

Metaphor Priming the Pump

In the Spink and Cole HIB theory, we used a continuum of data-information-knowledge, and the image of a tap and uncertainty/water energizing energizing,
adj giving energy to; revitalizing; rejuvenating.
 a pump that drives the mental state of information user into data foraging mode, an information-seeking mode or a knowledge creation mode of HIB. Metaphor causes superordinate category instantiation, like priming a pump, creating new properties to flow from its home module to the topic module. The topic module is the module that is controlling the attention of the individual at the moment the pump is primed by metaphorical or intermodular data flow. Suddenly, the person's acategorical thinking (defined by Herold [2001] and cited above) assumes some category definition as a result of this flow, but it would probably, we assume, be a superordinate category of some kind that jump starts topic category formation based on a sudden information process, which is, in turn, based on this category conceptualization process--i.e., there is an inclusion, or class inclusion process mechanism connected to the process (Glucksberg et al., 1997). It does this by promoting abstractions rather than specificity (cf. also, Lowenstein et al., 1999).

After the metaphor priming of the pump occurs, we assume that the result of the process is that the superordinate category and the abstraction of the category effectuated by the process create a structure containing the following:

1. Dimensions of category (Glucksberg et al., 1997).

2. It provides relevance criteria.

3. Therefore, it provides relevance dimensions for subsequent information seeking Information seeking is the process or activity of attempting to obtain information in both human and technological contexts. Information seeking is related to, but yet different from, information retrieval (IR). , search, and use.

CONCLUSION

In this article, we have attempted to describe the relationship between HIB and PI. Extending our theory of HIB, we discuss what occurs when, based on modular cognitive architecture and evolutionary psychology theoretic principles, a person's information behavior and thinking mechanism leads to adaptation of the human organism to new or unmeaningful data in the environment for the purpose of ensuring survival in the environment. In this type of behavior, the human gathers or forages for data constantly, without awareness, and for no purpose other than adaptation to the environment for survival. So the person is very sensitive to the environment as this behavior is constant and does not demand attentional mechanisms needed for other types of more search-oriented information behavior.

According to one theory, the Big Bang in human thinking allowed the interflowing of modular data from one module to the other, thus creating the ability for human metaphorical thinking. In this article, we have attempted to describe how metaphorical thinking causes this interflow In`ter`flow´

v. i. 1. To flow in.
, leading to the facilitation Facilitation

The process of providing a market for a security. Normally, this refers to bids and offers made for large blocks of securities, such as those traded by institutions.
 of human adaptation to changes in the environment. We assume that this process, or something like this process, underlies all original thinking in both the human species and at the level of the individual human organism--i.e., modular and metaphorical thinking is the mechanism that allows the single individual to survive by adapting in the group and in his/her environmental framework.

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Amanda Spink, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, 610 IS Building, 135 N. Bellefield Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15260, and Charles Cole, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, McGill University McGill University, at Montreal, Que., Canada; coeducational; chartered 1821, opened 1829. It was named for James McGill, who left a bequest to establish it. Its real development dates from 1855 when John W. Dawson became principal. , 3459 McTavish St., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1Y1
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Date:Jan 1, 2004
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