D. Harris (Ed.): Engin. Psychol. and Cog. Ergonomics, HCII 2011, LNAI 6781, pp. 225–232, 2011. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 Information Searching on the Web: The Cognitive Difficulties Experienced by Older Users in Modifying Unsuccessful Information Searches Aline Chevalier 1 , Aurélie Dommes 2 , and Jean-Claude Marquié 1 1 Laboratoire CLLE-LTC (UMR 5263, CNRS, Université de Toulouse, EPHE), Maison De la Recherche, 5 Allées Machado, 31058 Toulouse Cedex 9, France 2 IFSTTAR, French institute of science and technology for transport, development and networks. 25 allée des Marronniers, 78 000 Versailles-Cedex, France {aline.chevalier,marquie}@univ-tlse2.fr, aurelie.dommes@ifsttar.fr Abstract. The present study addressed age-related differences in performances and strategies developed by web users while searching for information. Ten older and 10 younger adults had to search for information with Google and to answer 9 questions varying in complexity: from simple ones (participants needed to use keywords provided in the questions) to impossible ones (no answer existed). The results showed that older participants had lower performances than younger ones; age-related differences were more particularly marked as the question complexity increased. Regression analyses showed that processing speed and cognitive flexibility accounted for a large part of the variance in performances. The younger and older participants also differed in the strategies they developed while searching for information. The older participants tended to focus on the evaluation of the results provided by Google. In contrast, the younger participants tended to plan and regulate their activity, this last strategy provided better performances. Keywords: Information searching; aging; question complexity; cognitive abilities; strategies. 1 Introduction The information searching (IS) activity can be considered as problem-solving and decision-making activities whereby the problem-solver’s knowledge and other mental representations are manipulated in order to achieve a goal. More precisely, according to Sharit, Hernandez, Czaja and Pirolli [11], the information problem-solving process is divided into the three following sub-processes: • The representation of the problem to be solved. The problem statement is internalized in order to build up a mental representation of the information elements to be searched. • The planning. A method for coming up with a solution is elaborated. It often requires dividing the problem into sub-goals. • The execution. The operations that were elaborated during the planning process are carried out.