Abstract

YUS, FRANCISCO. Alterations of Relevance in Cyber-media. Univ. Psychol. [online]. 2008, vol.7, n.3, pp.629-642. ISSN 1657-9267.

The way people interact with other people and access information has changed drastically with the popularisation of "information and communication technologies" (ICT). However, in relevance theory Sperber and Wilson (1986) insist that our cognitive system relies on only one criterion when interacting with the surrounding world: the need to be relevanceoriented. Basically, when interpreting, when accessing information, or when learning, we all engage in a cost-benefit procedure intended to obtain interesting information (named cognitive effects) in exchange for the least mental effort. This article starts with this relevance-theoretic premise, but also shows how the qualities of (now popularized) cyber-media alter the way this cost-benefit balance is assessed and how (ir)relevant outcomes emerge from people’s cognitive interaction with these media.

Keywords : Cyberpragmatics; Relevance; Computer-mediated Communication; Information Technology; Relevance (Information Retrieval); Telematics.

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