Abstract:
Affected variables of information needs occurrence of an
information seeker which discussed in this paper are an
important research area of the user studies. This paper is
drawn on literary reviews focusing, in particularly the
information needs concepts, theories, and its affected
variables which explored the cognitive metaphors and
methods. Even though researchers reviewed a range of
several existing published pieces of literature on the target
topic, the main objective of this paper is to discuss the key
concepts of information needs from different angles to unify
the concept of information needs through a new dimension
while designing a very comprehensive hypothetical model
of information needs occurrences.
This paper found that information needs occurrences
happen through a complex process of involving the
individual's insufficient knowledge structure. The complexity
arose due to two kind of basic variables such as cognitive
and socio variables. The problem of insufficient knowledge
became apparent when a variety of void areas were
identified in the current state of knowledge. These voids
were identified through cognitive environment. The
cognitive variables were found as a set of features which
expresses the individual's knowledge identity and capacity.
This paper suggests that some specific cognitive factors
such as skill factors, knowledge factors and psychological
statuses of the overall intellectual power which affected
with the insufficient needs. In this context, different avenues
of information needs occurrences were discussed in order
to identify the nature of the needs and the characteristics
involved with that process
