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prospective vacation spots in his mind. The criteria he uses to weigh prospective vacation spots
now may include information availability, in addition to personal interests, task requirements and
available time span. During the preliminary search, John may learn something new from the
information objects he encounters and the newly learned information may or may not change
John's list of prospective vacation spots. After the preliminary search, John may spend some
time reading the information he gathered. He may also want to talk to other people for advice.
Consequently, the vacation spots judged to have the greatest potential for success are selected;
the number of prospective vacation spots is decreased, while the need for more specific
information about the narrowed-down list of prospective topics is increased.
John, therefore, engages in another search episode to gather background and potentially
relevant information for each prospective vacation spot. The purpose of search now, however,
has shifted from exploring information availability to exploring the possibilities of the vacation
package by learning more about vacation spots and identifying potential aspects of the vacation
spots (e.g., accommodations, airline price, other traveling expenses, the exchange rate of
currency in the destination). With the increased knowledge about the vacation spots, John also
is able to personalize information attainment by adding values based on his prior knowledge and
experience (e.g., get ideas of vacation possibilities and envision how he and his vacation partner
are going to spend the vacation together). The prior knowledge and experience contribute to
the new two criteria of vacation package exploration, the perceived sophistication of the
vacation package (e.g., possible activities in the vacation spot) and the self-estimated ability of
forming a personalized, sensible and reasonable view of the vacation spots in an allotted time