Within-person analysis of information seeking: The effects of perceived costs and benefits

This study focused on how perceived costs and benefits affect information s eeking across multiple types and sour ces of information. This focus requir ed a within-person approach to data collection and analysis. Respondents we re 282 early-career engineers. The results demonstrate that individuals sel ectively seek different types of information, and utilize different sources , based on assessments of corresponding costs ann benefits. Results provide insight into individual's decisions about what information to seek and fro m whom, and highlight the value of studying within-person patterns of infor mation seeking. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.