Children’s Categorization and the Design of Taxonomic Categories in Search Engines Dania Bilal and Peiling Wang [email protected] [email protected] School of

Children’s Categorization and the Design of Taxonomic Categories in Search Engines

Dania Bilal and Peiling [email protected]

[email protected]

School of Information SciencesUniversity of Tennessee

451 Communications Bldg.Knoxville, TN 37996

LIDA 2003, May 25-30 Dubrovnik, Croatia

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A Specific Cognitive View of the Mind and Categorization

“The structures used to put together our conceptual systems grow out of bodily experience and make sense in terms of it…The core of our conceptual systems is directly grounded in perception, body movement, and experience of a physical and social character” (Lakoff, 1987, p.xiv”).


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Purpose of the Study Examine children’s cognitive

structure of specific categories. Map children’s conceptual structure

of the categories to the existing taxonomic categories in Web search engines.


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Research Question I

What conceptual structure do childrengenerate for specific categories used

in Yahooligans! and KidsClick!?

Sub-questions Intra-consistency vs. inter-consistency Depth and breadth of hierarchical structure Number of concepts included and excluded Number of concepts misarranged


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Research Question II

How does children’s conceptual structure for the specific categories map to Yahooligans! and KidsClick! categories?

Sub-questions Concept overlap between children’s maps and Yahooligans! Concept overlap between children’s maps and KidsClick! Depth of hierarchies between children’s maps and Yahooligans! Depth of hierarchies between children’s maps and KidsClick!


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Method Construct-A-Map From Scratch

Technique (Ruiz-Primo, et. al., 2001) Parental permission was requested

for 30 middle school children; 13 were granted. Two children participated in pilot testing, resulting in 11 children in the final sample.


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Selection of Categories Yahooligans!: Science and Nature

Three levels of depth; nine concepts Concrete concepts

KidsClick!: Family and Health Two levels of depth; eight concepts Abstract concepts


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Procedures Data were collected in May 2001 and

took six sessions Three sessions - categories from

Yahooligans! Three sessions - categories from KidsClick!

Research team One researcher, two school librarians, and

one trained graduate student


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Procedures Yahooligans! and KidsClick!

sessions

Session 1: card sorting Session 2: drawing concept maps Session 3: individual interviews


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Yahooligans! Conceptual map

Science & Nature

Space Animals

Astronomy Reptiles & Amphibians Extinct Animals

Solar System Turtles Dinosaurs


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KidsClick! Conceptual map

Health & Family

Medicine

Hospitals Diseases

Adoption

DisabilitiesFamily Life Exercise


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Results


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Intra- & Inter-consistency

Engine Intra-consistencyMaps 1 & 2

Percentage (%)

(n=11)

Inter-consistencyMap 2

Percentage (%)

(n=11)

Yahooligans! X 45 X 56

KidsClick! X 64 X 27

Y & K N/A N/A X 18


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Characteristics of Children’s Maps vs. those of Engines

Children’s concept maps

Concepts Yahooligans!Mean value

(n=11)

Yahooligans!Concept map characteristics

Concepts KidsClick!Mean value

(n=11

KidsClick!Concept map characteristics

Highest depth 3.91 4 4.18 3

Lowest depth 3.27 4 2.91 2

Breadth, level 1 1.18 1 1.09 1

Breadth, level 2 2.36 2 2.18 4

Terms included 8.9 9 8.45 8

Terms excluded 1.09 1 1.54 2

Terms misarranged

2.36 N/A 5.54 N/A


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Accuracy of Categorization

Yahooligans!Category

Children’s categorization

(%)

KidsClick! Category Children’s categorization

(%)

Level 1: Science and Nature

82 Level 1: Health and Family

45

Level 2: Space; Animals

18 Level 2: Exercise/ Disabilities/ Family Life/ Medicine

0


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Children’s Category Structure Overlap with Yahooligans!

Categories Children codes Number of children

Percentage(%)

Science and Nature—Space--Astronomy 2,6,10 3 27

Science and Nature—Animals—Extinct Animals

1,2,4,6,7,8,9 7 64

Science and Nature—Animals—Reptiles and Amphibians

1,2,4,6,7,8,9,11 8 73

Animals—Reptiles and Amphibians—Turtles

1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,11 9 82

Animals—Extinct Animals—Dinosaurs 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9 8 73


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Children’s Structure of Sub-categories vs. Yahooligans!

Sub-categories Percentageof children

(%)

Yahooligans! Structure

Astronomy --Space—Solar System 55 Space—Astronomy—Solar System

Space—Solar System/Astronomy 27 Space—Astronomy—Solar System

Astronomy—Solar System/Space .09 Space—Astronomy—Solar System

Astronomy—Solar System—Space .09 Space—Astronomy—Solar System

Animals—Reptiles and Amphibians—Turtles/Animals—Extinct Animals—Dinosaurs*

82 Animals—Reptiles and Amphibians—Turtles/Animals—Extinct Animals--Dinosaurs

*Exact arrangement


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Children’s Category Structure Overlap with KidsClick!

Categories Children codes Number of children

Percentage(%)

Health and Family—Family Life—Adoption 1,2,3,6,7,8,9,11 8 73

Health and Family—Exercise 1,2,3,4,7,10 6 55

Health and Family—Disabilities 10,11 2 18


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Children’s Structure of Sub-categories vs. KidsClick!

Sub-categories Percentage KidsClick! Configuration

Hospitals—Medicine—Disease 27 Medicine—Hospitals/Disease

Hospitals—Medicine 64 Medicine—Hospitals/Disease

Hospitals—Disease—Medicine 27 Medicine—Hospitals/Disease

Hospitals—Disabilities 45 Health and Family—Disabilities

Medicine—Hospitals .09 Medicine—Hospitals/Disease

Medicine—Exercise .09 Medicine—Hospitals/Disease

Medicine—Disabilities .09 Health and Family—Disabilities

Environment—Adoption* .09 Family Life—Adoption

Health and Family—Disabilities 18 Health and Family—Disabilities

Health and Family—Exercise 55 Health and Family—Exercise

Family Life—Adoption 82 Family Life—Adoption

Family Life—Disabilities 18 Health and Family—Disabilities

Adoption—Exercise .09 Family Life—Adoption

Disabilities—Exercise .09 Health and Family—Disabilities

Disease—Disabilities .09 Health and Family—Disabilities

*Odd arrangement.


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To be Discussed

Conclusions

Documents

Children’s Categorization and the Design of Taxonomic Categories in Search Engines Dania Bilal and Peiling Wang [email protected] [email protected] School of