[Library and Information Science] New Directions in Information Behaviour Volume 1 || Chapter 10 Information Behaviour Development in Early Childhood

Chapter 10

Information Behaviour Development

in Early Childhood

Amanda Spink and Jannica Heinstrom

Abstract

This chapter explores new and emerging dimensions in our under-standing of how information behaviour develops in early childhood.Spink (2010) proposed that information behaviour — when we engagein behaviours to make sense of, seek, avoid, forage, use and organiseinformation — is (1) shaped by both instinctive and environmentaldimensions that are as essential to the lives of our prehistoric ancestorsas they are for people today and (2) emerges in early childhood. Thischapter explores what we currently know about the development ofcognitive, language, social and information behaviour abilities in earlychildhood. Drawing on research from cognitive and developmentalpsychology, and findings from two studies of different aspects ofyoung children’s information behaviours, including Web searching(Spink, et al., 2010) and library information categorisation (Cooper,2004), the chapter discusses information behaviour development inearly childhood. The connection between general cognitive develop-ment and information behaviour are discussed, and further researchsuggested.

New Directions in Information Behaviour

Library and Information Science, 245–256

Copyright r 2011 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 1876-0562/doi:10.1108/S1876-0562(2011)002011a013

246 Amanda Spink and Jannica Heinstrom

10.1. Introduction

In her recent book, Spink (2010) proposed two new dimensions in ourunderstanding of information behaviour — when we engage in behavioursto make sense of, seek, avoid, forage, use and organise information. Firstly,from an evolutionary perspective information behaviour is shaped by bothinstinctive and environmental dimensions. Secondly, from a developmentalperspective information behaviour emerges in early childhood over alifetime development. There are no known societies where we do not findevidence of information behaviour. Information behaviour is a universalhuman behaviour. As both instinct and environment shape humanbehaviours (Blumberg, 2005), the role of instinct and environment inshaping information behaviour is an important area of research forinformation behaviourists (Spink, 2010).

Figure 10.1 shows Spink’s (2010) theoretical framework for informationbehaviour, including the various levels and dimensions within informationbehaviour.

Figure 10.1 shows that at the evolutionary foundation level, informationbehaviour is an evolved behaviour, with the dimensions of a biologicalprimary ability that appears in all humans. It is also a genetic adaptationand instinct that is related to language and survival/reproductive pressures,and emerged as part of the human need to control their environment.Moving further up Figure 10.1, this chapter focuses on drawing together

Evolutionary Foundation

Socio -Cognitive

Ability

Biological Secondary

Ability

Information Intelligence

Environment

Infancy Childhood Juvenility

Physical Location

Adulthood

ELIS Sense Making

Seeking Foraging Searching Organising Using

INFORMATION BEHAVIOR

Human Cognitive &Social Behavior

Lifetime Development

Information Grounds

Sub Process

Adolescence

Multitasking & Coordinating

Physiological Location

Virtual Location

Affective Traits

Evolved Behavior

Biological Primary Ability

Genetic Adaptation

Language InstinctMotivation to Control

Information Processing

Survival & Reproductive

Pressures

Dimension

Level

Figure 10.1: A theoretical framework for information behaviour.

Information Behaviour Development in Early Childhood 247

what is currently known at the lifetime development level of informationbehaviour. We focus more specifically somewhere between infancy andchildhood. This chapter extends Spink (2010) by exploring further what weknow about how information behaviour emerges and develops in earlychildhood, including findings from a recent study of Web searching byyoung children (Spink, Danby, Mallan, & Butler, 2010).

10.2. Cognitive, Language, Social and Information Behaviour

Development

10.2.1. Early Childhood

As a human behaviour, using the behavioural sciences and developmentalpsychology as a guide, cognition, physical and motor, social, language andinformation behaviour has a developmental basis that is interrelated (Spink,2010). During early childhood, young children’s cognitive, emotional,language, physical and social abilities develop rapidly (Gowers, 2005; Segal,1998). Combined, and interacting with each other, these abilities set thefoundation for information behaviour. In the following sections, weparticularly focus on the cognitive, language and social development thattakes place in children’s development during years three to five. During thisdevelopmental stage symbolic thinking emerges (DeLoache, 2010), andlanguage and social skills develop substantially. Two of the most influentialscholars in early childhood cognitive development are Piaget (1952) andVygotsky (1978). According to Piaget (1952), knowledge construction leanson two basic learning mechanisms: assimilation (integrating new informa-tion into existing knowledge structures) and accommodation (adjustingprevious knowledge structures according to new information). In infancy,information input consists mainly of tangible sensory experiences, but aschildren grow they increasingly build their cognition on abstract representa-tions of reality.

Piaget (1952) describes children’s cognitive development as a stepwiseprocess along four universal stages where each stage introduces newcognitive abilities which build on and extend existing ones. In the first,sensorimotor, stage (0–2 years), children build their understanding of theworld on concrete physiological experiences, sensations and movements, inthe here and now. During this stage, children begin to understand thatobjects are permanent and exist beyond the immediately present. Symbolicrepresentation, however, is not yet well developed, although language beginsto evolve (Ginsburg & Opper, 1969).


During the pre-operational stage (2–7 years), symbolism, language,memory, imagination and social interaction develop. Typical for this stage ismake-believe, pretend play, as well as animism: believing that inanimateobjects have lifelike features (Ginsburg & Opper, 1969). At the beginning ofthis stage children remain egocentric in their thinking processes, having notyet developed an understanding of alternative perspectives and perceptionsin addition to their own. They, therefore, interpret new information basedon their own perspective, rather than understanding the relativity of theirexperience. During the pre-operational stage children’s representationalthinking, however, develop and children begin to understand that thingsexist beyond their own experience, as well as beyond the immediatelypresent (Ginsburg & Opper, 1969).

Children younger than two years of age can register and use informationthat they receive through direct observation. As their symbolic thinkinggrows, however, they begin to make use of information that they receiveindirectly through symbols. This substantially expands their informationhorizon. This transition generally tends to take place when the child isbetween 2.5 years and 3 years old (DeLoache, 2010). This ability frees thechild from the present moment, as he/she can now interact throughsubstitutes. This is also reflected into language where the child begins torefer to things beyond the present moment (Ginsburg & Opper, 1969).

During the first years of life the amount of information a child canmentally represent grows substantially, as do the information-processingspeed and working memory (Kail, 2000). While three-year olds learnthrough experiences, four- and five-year olds realise that it is their own mindthat mediates this experience. This also means that they themselves mayselect, organise and even transform information from their environment(Flavell, Miller & Miller, 1993, p. 112–113). Cognitive flexibility andabstraction also continue to grow steadily between the years 3 and 5(Bennett & Muller, 2010).

Later cognitive theory has criticised Piaget for being too universal andstage like (Flavell, 1971) not accounting enough for domain differences(Keil, 1989), individual differences (Gardner, 1983; Sternberg, 1997), andcultural influence on intellectual development (Goswami, 2011b). The socialinfluence, and particularly the crucial role of language development for thefoundation of intellect, was, in contrast, the key emphasis of Vygotsky(1978). Vygotsky regarded language as the core element which shapesknowledge construction, learning and abstract thinking.

The child learns to communicate through signs and expressions which areused in his/her surrounding culture, but at the same time, he/she alsoacquires the way in which to use these signs, that is, what and how to think.Intelligence grows in direct interaction with the environment, as well asthrough the use of symbols. While Piaget (1952) thus conceived cognitive


development as universal and stage-like, Vygotsky (1978) pointed to theimportance of the surrounding culture and social context for the child’sdevelopment. The two theories are, however, by no means mutuallyexclusive, but instead point to different aspect of cognitive development.

In the following section, we discuss the main cognitive developmentaltrends during ages three to five, and what is known about informationbehaviour at this age.

10.2.2. Three-Year-Old Children

Three-year-old children have usually developed symbolic thinking(DeLoache, 2010). Their spoken language skills continue to grow, whilereading skills remain rare. Between the ages of two and three, analogicreasoning skills also strengthen. Although infants can use information tosolve simple problems (Chen & Siegler, 2000), older children canincreasingly use symbols and analogies to address complex problems(DeLoache, 2010; Goswami, 2010a). However, we have limited studiesabout the information behaviour of three-year-old children.

Current research provides limited evidence that three-year-old childrenhave developed information behaviour abilities beyond the here and now.They usually do not engage in information foraging, seeking or sensemaking, or information organising or using. The cognitive and socialdynamics of constructing an information behaviour process are notcurrently evident in three-year-old children.

10.2.3. Four-Year-Old Children

Four-year-old children have usually developed a set of cognitive, languageand social abilities beyond three-year-old children. They have acquired moreadvanced understanding of oral and written messages (e.g. developingreading skills), structured systems use and social communicative skills.These are skills that are useful, for example, in a Web searching context.

Spink et al. (2010) showed that four-year-old children demonstrate fairlyadvanced Web searching skills, including

� Engaging in Web searching� Typing words and spelling� Browsing search results� Creating Web queries including multiple words� Reformulating a Web query by changing, adding or deleting words


� Making relevance judgments on retrieved Websites� Engaging in information multi-tasking by searching on multiple subjectsin one search session� Engaging in related successive Web searches over time� Collaborating during Web searching� Using scrolling and hypertext linking.

10.2.4. Five-Year-Old Children

Five-year-old children have usually developed a set of cognitive, language,social, physical and motor abilities beyond four-year-old children, including(1) a classification skill: can sort a variety of objects so that all things in thegroup have a single common feature, (2) knowing the alphabet, (3) askingquestions, (4) a vocabulary of over 1500 words and (5) playingcooperatively. These skills are mirrored in their information behaviourwhich becomes more developed. Children’s ability to categorise strengthensat this stage as their cognitive development grows from concrete to abstractclassification skills (Keil, 1989). The emerging categorisation skills, inaddition, lean on social values, as children predominantly organiseinformation into categories which are valued by their surrounding culture(Markman, 1989).

Cooper (2004) showed that in using library services, five-year-old children

� Categorise based on their personal life world� Demonstrate insight into the alphabet� Engage in scanning� Typify library information based on some discernable visual evidence,most usually a picture or a book cover� Develop categorisation skills from concrete to abstract, and fromthematic to taxonomic.

10.3. Information Behaviour Abilities of Four- and Five-Year

Old Children

Figure 10.1 shows information behaviour as consisting of many sub-processes, including searching (Narayan, 2010). Most information beha-viour studies have focused on children older than six years with limitedresearch investigating the information behaviour of younger children(Cooper, 2005; Spink, et al, 2010). Limited research has investigateddevelopment aspects of information behaviour by four- and five-year-old


children, with the exception of two studies by Cooper (2004) and Spink et al.(2010).

10.3.1. Web Searching by Young Children

Spink et al. (2010) investigated Web searching by young children (four andfive years old) as one aspect of their information behaviour. Pairs of youngchildren in Queensland, Australia were video- and audiotaped as theyconducted Google Web searches in a pre-school classroom. The data wasqualitatively analysed to understand the young children’s Web searching.The study found that young children engage in complex Web searches andinformation behaviours, including keyword searching and browsing, queryformulation and reformulation, relevance judgments, successive searches,information multi-tasking and collaborative behaviours.

10.3.1.1. Creating Web Queries and Spelling The young children were notfully literate in the English language and had emerging spelling skills.However, our study participants created Web queries and read the wordsthey recognised on the computer screen. Entering the Web search querieswas one of the most time-consuming aspects of their Web searching as theyoung children had an emerging level of spelling skills. In most instances,the teachers encouraged the young children to have a go at writing the wordsand using their developing skills in sounding out words phonically duringtheir Web searching.

10.3.1.2. Browsing Young children were observed engaging in browsingbehaviour and creating Web queries in addition to browsing, includingquery formulation and reformulation.

10.3.1.3. Query Formulation and Reformulation/Advanced Search

Features Young children formulated and reformulated Web queries andentered them into the Google Web search engine.

10.3.1.4. Relevance Judgments Relevance and relevance judgments,including the criteria for and levels of relevance judgments, are a majorarea of research within Web studies (Spink, Greisdorf, & Bateman, 1998;Spink & Jansen, 2004). Spink et al. (2010) observed young children makingjudgments and talking about their relevance judgments related to therelevance of retrieved items during their Google Web searching.

10.3.1.5. Information Multi-tasking Multi-tasking is the human ability tohandle the demands of multiple tasks. Multi-tasking behaviour involves the


ordering of multiple tasks and switching between tasks. Studies show thatpeople often multi-task when using Web search engines as they seekinformation on more than one information problem over single or multiplesearch episodes (Spink, Ozmutlu, & Ozmutlu, 2002; Spink, Park, & Jansen,2006; Spink, Park, & Koshman, 2006). Spink et al. (2010) observed youngchildren engaging in multi-tasking behaviours and searching for more thanone subject during a single Web search session.

10.3.1.6. Successive Web Searching Successive searches are users’searches in digital environments over time related to the same or evolvinginformation problem (Spink, Bateman, & Greisdorf, 1999; Spink, Wilson,Ford, Ellis, & Foster, 2002). Spink et al. (2010) observed two studentsconducting the same search on two different days, and the same results werecoming up. Most of the Websites retrieved and visited on Day 2 had beenretrieved on Day 1.

10.3.1.7. Collaborative Behaviour Spink et al. (2010) observed instanceswhere the young children collaborated with each other on their Web searchtasks.

10.3.1.8. Managing Web Search Results Spink et al. (2010) observed theyoung children engaged in processes to manage the results they retrieved fromtheWeb search engine. After entering aWeb query and, if necessary, clarifyingthe ‘meaning or intent’ of the Web search, the young children then selected aresults page. Web searching for images was straightforward as the youngchildren showed that they could simply click on a picture to bring up aWebpage. Young children often selected Webpages based on image interestand relevance. When young children were faced with a Webpage of text, theyentered Web queries, clarified the meaning or intent of the Web search andselectedWebsites to view. The young children knew to click on the ‘blue words’to access a Webpage or use the ‘back arrow’ to access a previous Webpage.They also often scrolled several Web results pages. Young children were alsoobserved selecting their click choices. Often the Web search engine presentedthem with the ‘STOP’ sign as the Website was blocked by the school’s securitysetting. The young children were also interested in scrolling not just within apage of results in Google Image but also in several pages of image results.

10.3.2. Young Children’s Understanding of Web Searching

Young children regarded the Google Web search engine as a big ‘answermachine’, ‘false drops’ as human errors, approached Google as inquirers


and problem solvers, enjoyed typing, helping each other, findings things andshowing that they could remember which words or letters to use. Spink et al.(2010) showed that the young children were seeking information on complexinformation problems such as endangered species and searching on multipleproblems during a single search session or over multiple related sessions orsuccessive searching. This information problem batching process includedpriority/ordering of information problems and was influenced by their levelof personal interest and the classroom curriculum.

10.3.3. Young Children’s Categorisation of Information

In her 2004 study, Cooper examined the cognitive categories for libraryinformation of study participants in Kindergarten through grade 4. Shefound that young children categorise library information based on theirpersonal life world, but as they get older they move from a more personalunderstanding towards a more sociocultural understanding of informationin the library. Young children’s library information categorisation skillsmove from concrete to abstract, thematic to taxonomic and are shaped bysocial interaction.

10.4. Discussion

Based on the studies examined in the previous section of this chapter, we cansee a fairly well-developed understanding of the cognitive, social andlanguage abilities of young children. Their information behaviour abilitiesare not as well understood with limited studies exploring these issues.However, based on the studies by Spink et al. (2010) and Cooper (2004), wecan start to gain some initial understanding of when and how informationbehaviour develops in young children. Some information behaviour abilityseems to first emerge in young somewhere between three and five years ofage. We currently have no evidence of information behaviour by three-year-old children. But by the age of four we see evidence of informationbehaviour in the form of Web searching and information organisingthrough library information categorisation. There is evidence of changebetween a three-year-old child, who is personally centred and fairly concretein thinking, with limited information behaviour, to a four- or five-year-oldchild who is more abstract in thinking and being shaped by socialinteraction.

Four- and five-year old children’s information behaviours seem to mirrorthe cognitive development that takes place during this period. An important


ability that emerges at this stage is symbolic thinking (DeLoache, 2010). Thechild begins to understand that an object may be represented by a symbol, inform of another object, or by a sign, such as language. The child alsodevelops an ability to express him/herself in writing, by typing basic words.As shown by Spink et al. (2010), the words may not always be spelledcorrectly, but may yet serve their purpose if they are interpreted andunderstood by an information system. In other words, four and five-year-old children have learnt how to take advantage of their newly developedcommand of symbols to communicate their information need. Theirincreased flexible thinking (Bennett & Muller, 2010) in turn, manifest inthe ability to reformulate Web queries (Spink et al., 2010).

Children also develop a cognitive ability to multi-task at this stage, whichis reflected into search behaviour. The child’s adaptation into thesurrounding world is shaped by his/her internal development, for example,moving from egocentric thinking towards an increased understanding ofrelativity, and other people’s experiences. Cultural and social contexts alsoshape which information behaviour a child adapts, for instance, whichcategorisations she/he founds are important and valued within the culture.This was shown in Cooper’s study (2004) where young children’sunderstanding of category developed from a personal perspective into amore socially governed understanding. Both internal development andsocial learning thus shape the child’s emerging information behaviour.

10.5. Conclusion and Further Research

This chapter outlines the cognitive development that takes place between theages three and five. During this stage, symbolic and flexible thinkingdevelops, language skills strengthen and working memory and information-processing speed increases. There is, therefore, reason to believe that this is adevelopmental stage where an important cognitive and social foundation forinformation behaviour is layed. Information behaviour abilities seem toemerge during this transition from three to five years of age. How andexactly when we can expect information behaviour abilities to becomeevident in young children is yet still a fairly open research question.

Specific cognitive and social abilities, such as abstract thinking, languagedevelopment, symbolic representation and their link to informationbehaviour, would be important to explore in future research, in order toget a more profound understanding of how the emerging informationbehaviour interacts with and leans on other cognitive and social develop-ment. Information behaviour is, however, dependent on several variousmechanisms which, in turn, build on, and interact with, each other.


Consequently, the cognitive foundation for information behaviour needsto be examined both through interactional studies and by research whichfocuses in depth on one particular cognitive or communicative aspect. Justas its object for study, this field is yet in its infancy. This poses challenges toresearchers who boldly need to enter unexplored territory. The area,however, also holds rich promise for rewarding insights, which profoundlymay deepen our understanding of children’s information processes, as wellas of our own.

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[Library and Information Science] New Directions in Information Behaviour Volume 1 || Chapter 10 Information Behaviour Development in Early Childhood