Physical paradigm

Ellis (1992) finds that the two main paradigms in information science up to that data have been the "the physical paradigm" and "the cognitive paradigm". Ingwersen (1992) makes a distinction between the "traditional information retrieval (IR) research program", "the user oriented" program and "the cognitive approach". Ingwersen & Wormell (1990) uses the term "the systems driven paradigm" in a way that corresponds to "the physical paradigm" in Ellis' terminology.

According to Ellis (1992, p. 174-175) was the physical paradigm in information science founded by Cyril Cleverdon and the Cranfield experiments. The experimental environment was Cranfield College of Aeronautics and the tests were carried out in the same way as other technological products are tested. The core assumptions in the physical paradigm are according to Ellis:

What exactly the assumptions were at that time, and whether those assumptions have been continued in, for example, the TREC experiments, is in need of further analysis. Gordon (2002) argues that "Research traditions in education and information retrieval have grown up in parallel worlds, although they share a theoretical foundation that profoundly influences research methodology and best practice in their respective domains." She further sees a relation between the behaviorist paradigm in psychology/education and the systems approach in information retrieval (IR):

"Behaviorism also became a theoretical basis for systems approaches in information retrieval (IR) for research that was system rather than user centric. Behaviorists did not make inferences about how learners process information or what goes on internally when learning takes place. In education, behaviorist theory informed practice by providing a rationale for programmed instruction, teaching machines, and computer-assisted instruction. In library instruction it encouraged a tool-specific approach to teaching information skills in isolated lessons taught out of the context of their utility. "

Later a shift from behaviorism to cognitivism influenced both education and Library and Information Science (LIS):

"Piaget described schemata—mental structures by which individuals organized their perceptions into categories to classify specific information. These schemata adapt during the learning process through assimilation, by which the learner integrates new information into existing schemata, or by accommodation, whereby existing schemata are modified to create new mental structures. Learners were viewed as actively assimilating and accommodating information in terms of what they already knew (Bartlett 1932; Inhelder and Piaget 1958). Constructivist theory has grown to provide a rationale for hands-on, active learning; inquiry learning; learning to learn; and performance-based assessment in the classroom. With a paradigm shift from bibliographic instruction to information literacy, this theory supported the process approach to teaching information skills in the academic context of curriculum. The information user is seen as learner through the lenses of information literacy, cognitive, and metacognitive processes."

A related way to analyze paradigms in LIS is to look at the implicit epistemological assumptions in the research. The Cranfield experiments may be termed "empiricist" and "positivist". There are two levels in this empiricism: 1) the way information retrieval (IR) is measured by recall and precision 2) the way IR is conceptualized in the first hand as an efficient selection of document representations. Such empiricist assumptions may be confronted with other epistemological views, for example, hermeneutics and pragmatism. Such alternatives have implications on both the way research is carried out (e.g. more emphasis on qualitative research) and also on how IR is understood in the first place. (See Hjørland & Nissen Pedersen, 2005, for a discussion of positivist versus pragmatist assumptions in IR; click for summary of arguments).

One assumption in positivist approaches is a dichotomy between "users" and "systems". From hermeneutical and pragmatist points of view are users and systems more or less connected in ways of "pre-understanding". The way the system is designed may be influenced by the same world-views, conceptualizations and pre-understandings as have influenced the users. There may be more or less harmony or "fusion of horizons" (see, e.g., Capurro, 2002). The implication is that we cannot study "systems" and "cognitive processes" as two different things. Any kind of "systems approach" is based on some assumptions about cognitive processes. One difference between the Cranfield studies and much later "user oriented" research have been that Cranfield relied on expert evaluations when the relevance of documents was decided, while user oriented approaches have mainly been based on users' relevance criteria. In this way has the "physical paradigm" been based on cognitive assumptions about subject knowledge that is somewhat in conflict with user-based views on how the relevance of documents have to be evaluated.

The concept of "system" is somewhat unclear in the term "systems oriented approach". Often, one have the feeling that by "system" is meant "computer system". However, also the bibliographical system have been understood as part of the "systems oriented approach" (c.f., bibliographic paradigm). Users are often members of specific groups, disciplines, domains, cultures or "paradigms". Such groups may be understood as "social systems". Again is the implication that systems and users cannot be understood separated from each other. If we understand "the systems-oriented approach" narrowly as computer systems, LIS is reduced to a branch of computer science. If we understand "the systems-oriented approach" broadly then it is not possible to maintain the dichotomy between users and systems because users are mainly to be understood as products of the cultural systems.

Related to the development of metadata and topic maps has another dichotomy gained ground: The resource-centric view versus the subject-centric view. This is probably a more fruitful understanding:

"The topic maps paradigm recognizes that everything and anything can be a subject of conversation, and that every subject of conversation can be a hub around which data resources can orbit. Unlike the resource-centric view in which metadata orbits data resources, in the subject-centric view, data orbits subjects. If the subject itself happens to be a data resource, the orbiting data can, of course, be called metadata. But one of the essential lessons of the topic maps paradigm is that all data is data about subjects, but only some subjects are themselves data; most subjects are not information resources. When the problem of global knowledge interchange is approached with this subject-centric attitude, the solution becomes much simpler and easier. Indeed, for many people, and particularly for the people who have used it the most, the topic maps paradigm passes the most convincing test of all: the solution, once finally found, is obvious." (Newcomb, 2003, p. 43).

Ellis, D. (1992). Paradigms and proto-paradigms in information retrieval research. Pp. 165-186 in: Vakkari, P. & Cronin, B. (Eds.): Conceptions of Library and Information Science. Historical, empirical and theoretical perspectives. London: Taylor Graham.

Ellis, D. (1992) The physical and cognitive paradigms in information retrieval research. Journal of Documentation, 48, 45-64.

Ingwersen, P. (1992). Information Retrieval Interaction. London: Taylor Graham. Available online: http://www.db.dk/pi/iri/#chapters

Ingwersen, P. & Wormell, I. (1990). Informationsformidling i teori og praksis. København, Munksgaard.

Newcomb, S. R. (2003). A perspective on the quest for global knowledge interchange. IN: XML Topic Maps: Creating and Using Topic Maps for the Web. Ed. by Jack Park & Sam Hunting. Boston, MA: Addison Wesley Professional (pp. 31-50).

See also: Bibliographic paradigm; Information science, theory; Cognitive paradigm