PhD: Thesis - "Supporting Human Memory in Personal Information Management"

PhD: Thesis - "Supporting Human Memory in Personal Information Management"

My PhD. thesis was written at the Department of Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. My supervisor was Dr. Ian Ruthven.

Abstract:

Personal Information Management (PIM) describes the processes by which an individual acquires, organises, and re-finds information. Studies have shown that people find PIM challenging and many struggle to manage the volume and diversity of information that they accumulate.

The research described in this thesis investigates PIM from the perspective of the psychology of memory. The behaviours involved in managing personal information are related to memory and the difficulties that people have with PIM are related to the limitations of human memory and the failure of PIM tools to account for these limitations. The research described increases understanding of the role that memory plays in PIM and investigates the merits of incorporating the characteristics and function of human memory in the design of PIM tools.

The research is grounded by the theoretical understanding of how memory works. A review of appropriate cognitive psychology literature offers a means to critique existing PIM tools and a basis from which to start designing novel memory supporting tools. Early experimental work compares PIM behaviour to everyday memory problems and attempts to learn lessons from the strategies that people use to prevent and recover from memory lapses in everyday life. The findings inform the design of novel PIM prototypes that account for the workings of memory. The tools are evaluated to determine the usefulness of incorporating memory in the design of PIM tools, to learn about what people remember about their information, how they use these memories to re-find, and how interfaces can be designed to support these memories.

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