THE EFFECTS OF FORMATTING RESTRICTIONS ON THE QUALITY OF REPORT SUMMARIES PRODUCED BY HUMANS
Abstract
Despite increasing automation of information retrieval systems humans will still be required to assist in selecting and reducing information from text. Format restrictions imposed by man-machine communication might interfere with verbal habits and result in performance degradation. However, such restrictions might result in increased effectiveness, because of partial encoding. A restricted format designated as content term diagram was compared with natural language format. Subjects were 48 male undergraduates. Each worked for eight sessions. Results supported interference prediction for time scores and subjects' evaluations of difficulty. However, term diagram summaries resulted in higher information densities and more correct responses to information requests. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 11, 1962
- Accession Number
- AD0278663
Entities
People
- John D. Jr. Ford
Organizations
- System Development Corporation