An associative index model for the results list based on Vannevar Bush's selection concept

A user conducting an information search using an Internet search engine, an online public access catalogue, or some other information retrievalsystem is often faced with a long and confusing results list, which may cause information overload in the user. We specifically define the case where the results list leads to information overload in the body of this article. As we will show, the information overload problem is especially acute for a user who does not know the answer s/he is expecting to find, a type of search called a topic, subject or exploratory information search (Meadow et al. 2007). The user conducting an exploratory information search does not have a frame of reference for recognizing the target answer in the results list.