Abstract: Investigating user behavior on query pages, search engine result pages, and detail pages can help reveal the mechanisms of health information search behaviors and optimize strategies for health information identification services. This study recruited 32 users to complete two health information identification tasks with different levels of difficulty. Utilizing open coding, the types of APPs used by users were cataloged. Information carriers, such as query pages, search engine result pages, and detail pages used during the identification process, alongside pages users subjectively deemed useful and captured via screenshots, served as the basis for an in-depth analysis of user APP usage behaviors from two dimensions: information source selection and cognitive resource allocation strategies. The findings underscore the significant influence of task difficulty on the choice of information sources within community APPs, highlighted by an increase in the diversity of pages visited and the volume of information captured in screenshots for tasks of higher difficulty. Similarly, task difficulty significantly affects the cognitive resource allocation strategy for health APPs, demonstrated by an augmented investment of cognitive resources on detail pages for more challenging tasks. This shift entails a reduced proportion of cognitive resources allocated to query pages, alongside an elevated rate of information adoption. Accordingly, this study reveals the "synchronous awakening" effect of task difficulty on user APP behavior in health information identification, confirming the phenomena of media dependence and authority dependence within this context.

Key words: Health information identification, Task difficulty, APP page, Information source selection, Cognitive resource allocation strategy