Abstract
Two common assumptions held by information retrieval researchers are that searching using Boolean operators is inferior to natural language searching and that results from batch-style retrieval evaluations are generalizable to the real-world searching. We challenged these assumptions in the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) interactive track, with real users following a consensus protocol to search for an instance recall task. Our results showed that Boolean and natural language searching achieved comparable results and that the results from batch evaluations were not comparable to those obtained in experiments with real users.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 383-402 |
Number of pages | 20 |
Journal | Information Processing and Management |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2001 |
Keywords
- Evaluation
- Information retrieval (IR)
- Text retrieval Conference (TREC)
- User studies
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Information Systems
- Media Technology
- Computer Science Applications
- Management Science and Operations Research
- Library and Information Sciences