THE EFFECTS OF QUERY COMPLEXITY, EXPANSION

AND STRUCTURE ON INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

SYSTEMS
 Abstract

In this paper we have discussed about effects of query complexity, expansion and structure on retrieval
performance measured as precision and recall in probabilistic text retrieval were tested. Complexity
refers to the number of search facets or intersecting concepts in a query. Facets were divided into major and
minor facets on the basis of their importance with respect to a corresponding request. Two complexity
levels were tested: high complexity refers to queries using all search facets identified from requests, low
complexity was achieved by formulating queries with major facets only. There were five expansion types:
(1) the first query version was an unexpanded, original query with one search key for each search concept
(original search concepts) elicited from the test thesaurus;
(2) the synonyms of the original search keys were added to the original query;
(3) search keys representing the narrower concepts of the original search concepts were added to the
original query;
(4) search keys representing the associative concepts of the original search concepts were added to the
original query;
(5) all previous expansion keys were cumulatively added to the original query.
Query structure refers to the syntactic structure of a query expression, marked with query operators and
parentheses. The structure of queries was either weak (queries with no differentiated relations between
search keys, except weights) or strong (different relationships between search keys).

1. Problems in Search Key Selection

and Query Formulation

Information retrieval (IR) is the

activity of information searching and
the name of a research area. IR is
concerned with the processes
involved in the representation,
storage, searching and finding of
information which is relevant to a
requirement for information desired
by a human user.
The reasons why people seek
information are called information
needs.
Information needs may be categorised
into (1) verificative, (2) conscious
topical, and (3) muddled or ill-
defined needs. The first category
refers to situation where documents
with known properties are sought,
e.g., by author name, titles of known
authors, etc. The second type implies
that the topic is known and definable,
but less exact than in the first
category. A person looking for
information has some level of
understanding of it. In the third
category are the cases in which a
person wishes to find new knowledge
and concepts in domains he is not
familiar with.
2. Retrieval Techniques: Exact and
Partial Matching
A query and document
representations are compared using
some retrieval or matching technique.
Figure 5 shows a classification of
retrieval techniques. An essential
differentiation lies between exact and
partial match. The former is identified
with matching based on Boolean
logic, the latter is diversified, most
studied cases being the vector space
model (Salton & McGill 1983) and
prob-abilistic retrieval. Exact match
means that the conditions given in a
query must be fulfilled exactly in a
document to be retrieved. Boolean
retrieval has been the prevalent
technique of operational IR systems
until recently.
Vector Space and Probabilistic
Models
The In-Query Retrieval System
3. From Requests to Queries
An information need should be
formulated into the language of an
IR system in order to retrieve
documents. In this chapter we shall
present the transformation process.
As soon as the request is stated, it
dominates the scene, and the words of
the request govern query formulation.
This is related to the label effect,
which means that information need is
expressed by words and phrases that
do not wholly describe the need but
label it.
4. Query Construction
We adopt the model of three
abstraction levels, that is, we
distinguish between conceptual,
linguistic and string levels. First,
search concepts are identified from a
request. Second, the concepts are
connected to expressions, which, in
turn, are replaced by search keys. As
the result of this process, a request is
translated into a query.
4.1 Conceptual level
A conceptual or facet analysis of the
request is an essential part of query
formulation. At the conceptual level a
query should be formulated without
any ties to query languages, rather it
should respect the information need
behind the request. A result of this
analysis is a conceptual query plan.
The conceptual query plan may be
described by complexity, specificity,
and coverage. Complexity is the
number of facets in the conceptual
query plan. A facet is represented in
the plan if any of the concepts
representing the facet is included.
Complexity is connected to the
syntagmatic relations of facets (or to
conjunction of concepts). Specificity
refers to the specificity of the
concepts representing facets. If the
concepts are of the same specificity
level as the request, the plan is fully
specific. The specificity is connected
to conceptual hierarchies. Coverage
is the number of concepts in the
conceptual query plan. Coverage is
connected to the paradigmatic
relations of the concepts in a facet (or
to disjunction of concepts).
4.2 Linguistic level
The conceptual query plan is turned
into the level of expressions by
naming the concepts with accurate
words and phrases. A search
expression refers to words and
phrases of natural language, to
common codes and abbreviations,
and to terms of documentation
languages. Search keys are either
string constants, which correspond
to expressions at string level, or
string patterns, which match several
string constants and are typically
formed from constants by applying
wild cards.
4.3 String level
At the string level search expressions
are turned into search keys (character
strings) suitable for matching in the
index of a database, and the
expressed query becomes a formal
query.The number of search keys in a
query is an analogous concept with
coverage, and is referred to as
broadness. In a strict sense,
complexity and coverage belong to
the conceptual query plan, but are
used to describe formal queries as
well, because no confusion should
arise. In other words, the attributes of
the conceptual level are passed on to
the linguistic and string levels. In all,
abstraction levels should be
understood as overlapping layers, and
a concept as a kernel item, which has
representatives at other levels.
5. Query Structures
In the literature the expression
structured queries typically refers
to queries formulated with the
Boolean operators in contrast to
natural language queries, which are
sets of words. Thus, structure may
be understood as relationships
between search keys in a query, and
it is expressed in query lan-guages
by operators or search key weights,
which guide the matching of search
keys and document representations.
The structure of queries may be
described as weak or strong. A
weak query structure does not
indicate facet or concept structure
with operators (i.e., queries with a
single or no explicit operator;
differentiated relations between
search keys). In a strong query
structure search keys representing
different concepts or facets are
separated by operators (i.e., queries
with several operators;
differentiated relationships between
search keys).
Queries can be classified according to
their structural features:
1)are concepts identified?
2)are facets identified?
3)are concepts weighted?
4)are facets weighted?
5)are search keys based on single
words or phrases?
6)are search keys weighted?
7)by what operators are facets /
concepts / search keys
connected?
6.Query Expansion
Query formulation, reformulation,
and expansion have been studied
extensively because the selection of
good search keys is difficult but
crucial for good results. Real users
requests and/or queries do not
usually contain all the expressions
and not necessarily the best
expressions that might be used to
describe the concepts of interest.
Typically, requests are short, and
each concept in them is named by
one expression only, and queries
may contain only a few search
expressions. (Bates, Wilde &
Siegfried 1993, 2327; Lu &
Keefer 1995.) The first query
formulation typically acts as an
entry to the search system and is
followed by browsing and query
reformulations. The first query may
be reformulated by adding search
keys with or without reweighting
(NB., both search keys and text
keys may be reweighted), the
process known as query expansion
(QE). QE may be specified by the
sources of expansion keys, by the
methods of selecting expansion
keys, and by the methods of adding
expansion keys to queries.
In general, QE is not tied to any
retrieval technique, but may be
applied with any of them. However,
the effects of QE could be
dependent on retrieval technique
and query structure, although little
consideration has been given to
query structures in partial match
retrieval.
Conclusion
In this study we have tested the
effects of query structure,
complexity and expansion on
retrieval performance in partial
match retrieval. We have
demonstrated that when the
broadness of queries is low, the
query structure does not have
significant effects on retrieval
performance, but when queries are
expanded in other words, when
the number of search keys is
increased the query structure
affects retrieval performance
substantially. The best effectiveness
for broad queries is yielded by
facet- or concept-based query
structures that treat all keys
representing a facet or a concept as
instances of one key.