Biometric Tools in Information Science. The Example of an Information Literacy Study – A Holiday Planning Experiment

Effective studies within interdisciplinary research fields, such as information literacy, require complex research methodologies. The purpose of the paper is to present the possibilities of biometric tools in the field of information science in triangulation with other methods and techniques. In addition to a literature review, the paper presents the project concerning information skills of young respondents in everyday life tasks. The study was conducted with the triangulation of a behavioral experiment, biometric measurements, and individual interviews. Results proved that young people are not as fluent in social media usage as it may seem. College students have limited communication and content creation skills. University students, however, present more advanced information skills. That might implicate the positive influence of university education and socialization on information literacy. During the project the biometric measures proved to be effective tools in exploring psychophysiological reactions while executing information tasks.