Fuzzy Group Models for Adaptation in Cooperative Information Retrieval Contexts

Cooperation in information retrieval contexts can be used to share query results inside groups of individuals with common objectives, provided that all of them are aware of each other. The strength of the social relationships between group members is in most cases a matter of comparative degree, and thus relationships can be modelled through fuzzy conceptual associations. These associations can then be used to implement personalized features, aimed at improving the interaction of the user with the query tool. In this paper, an approach to modelling imprecise relationships between users in the context of information retrieval is described, along with a concrete case study implemented as a wrapper of a conventional search engine, using a fuzzy database to store the model of the group members. Keywords. Fuzzy conceptual modelling, cooperative information retrieval, adaptive hypermedia, fuzzy databases.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: SOFSEM
• Authors: Miguel Ángel Sicilia Urbán, Elena García Barriocanal
• Keywords: Fuzzy Conceptual Associations, Fuzzy Databases, Information Retrieval, SOFSEM 2004, Theoretical Computer Science