Abstract: ［Purpose/Significance］The purpose of this paper is to explore the use and influencing factors of cognitive stopping rules when users stop their searching in digital libraries.［Design/Methodology］This study adopted laboratory research design, and randomly recruited 35 participants to execute 5 tasks with different cognitive complexity. Their basic demographic characteristics and prior retrieval experience were gathered before their retrieval; their retrieval process was recorded with screen recording software; and their use of cognitive stopping rules and their retrieval experience were collected after the tasks were terminated.［Findings/Conclusion］The experimental results show that users would use multiple cognitive stopping rules to decide whether or not to terminate their searching, while the "Mental List" is mostly used; task characteristics and users’ prior retrieval experience also play an important role in their use of cognitive stopping rules; the higher usage frequency of "Mental List","Magnitude Threshold" and "Single Criterion",the better the users’ retrieval experience; in addition, the use of some cognitive stopping rules is also significantly associated with users’ retrieval behavior.［Originality/Value］From the perspective of cognitive stopping rules use, suggestions of retrieval system optimization have been proposed for improving the effects and experience of users’ retrieval.

Keywords: Searching termination, Cognitive stopping rules, Digital library, Information behavior