Authors
Steve Whittaker, Charlotte Massey
Publication date
2020/10
Journal
Personal and Ubiquitous Computing
Volume
24
Issue
5
Pages
695-707
Publisher
Springer London
Description
Two studies explore whether people’s digital filing behaviors are affected by emotional factors when engaging in personal information management (PIM). Cognitive science research shows that people’s information categorization behaviors are mood-dependent, so that positive moods induce larger, more inclusive organizational categories, whereas negative moods elicit more fine-grained organization. However, such mood-dependent organization has not been directly studied in the context of PIM. Our first, naturalistic study examines relations between people’s overall filing habits and a personality trait, neuroticism, which is commonly associated with negative mood. Our results reveal the expected mood-dependency effects; participants who report more prevalent negative mood patterns when surveyed, also create different organizational structures. Overall, they make more folders that contain fewer files and …
Total citations
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