Introduction: This study investigated the effect of cognitive styles on users' information-seeking task performance using a knowledge domain information visualization system called CiteSpace. Method: Sixteen graduate students participated in a user experiment. Each completed an extended cognitive style analysis wholistic-analytic test (the…

Requirements are discussed for an information retrieval language that enables users to employ natural language sentences in interaction with computer-stored files. Anticipated modes of operation of the system are outlined. These are: the search mode, the dictionary mode, the tables mode, and the statistical mode. Analysis of sample sentences…

A user-oriented computer-based information retrieval system which would not require a computer specialist as an interface between computer and user was developed. The PLATO system was chosen because it was a high-speed computer-based man-machine interaction system with convenient visual display, keyset input device, versatile programing…

A primary goal of this project was to develop an interface that would provide direct access for inexperienced users to existing online bibliographic information retrieval networks. The experiment tested the concept of a virtual-system mode of access to a network of heterogeneous interactive retrieval systems and databases. An experimental…

This document is a study of the processing of questions input to computerized question-answering system such as the RAND Relational Data File. The process consists of (1)transforming the natural-language question into a symbolic question (i.e., a certain formula of predicate calculus) and (2)generating the answer by calculating the value set of…

EASY ENGLISH IS A NATURAL COMMAND LANGUAGE DESIGNED TO SIMPLIFY COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MAN AND MACHINE THROUGH A REMOTE TYPEWRITER CONSOLE. IT IS MADE UP OF READILY RECONIZED SENTENCES OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, SENTENCES WHICH ANY LAYMAN MIGHT BE EXPECTED TO USE IN EVERYDAY REQUESTS FOR SERVICES OR ARTICLES FROM A FAMILIAR SOURCE. EASY ENGLISH WAS…

This paper reports an experiment in on-line retrieval using man-machine dialogue on a remote console. Message editing procedures and the use of two command languages are described. The system employs a PDP-8 computer for generating, proofreading, and editing messages, and an IBM 7040 computer for information retrieval processing. The symbolic…

The background and functional capabilities of Stanford's library automation system and the hardware environment in which it operates are described. Prospects for extending BALLOTS to network use are summarized. (Author/PF)

A consideration of the development of on-line systems in terms of the computer changes that made on-line searching possible, and the use of these changes by information retrieval systems. (Author/KP)

A minimum of 30 minutes is required to learn even the rudiments of the command language (Symbolic Language). Although written instructions are helpful, practice is essential. The programmed instruction routines, which took approximately 20 minutes, were mostly of the 'yes-no' variety. Expanded routines, which would require other replies and would…

In contrast to conventional information storage and retrieval systems in which a body of knowledge is thought of as an indexed codex of documents to which access is obtained by an appropriately indexed query, this interdisciplinary study aims at an understanding of what is "knowledge" as distinct from a "data file," how this knowledge is acquired,…

Project Intrex is a program of experiments intended to provide a foundation for the design of future information transfer systems, with the library of the future visualized as a computer-managed communications network. In order to discover the necessary facts, especially in the area of the user's interaction with the system, experimentation is…

This paper explains DASM, a package of programs and routines for Direct Access Storage Management on 70/564 disc packs. Its basic unit of data is a record. DASM processes (retrieves and maintains) records by techniques which require the user to reference a record by its name (both record and file name). The steps through which a user can create a…

After three years of preparation, the Project Intrex research team has begun to subject parts of its augmented catalog system to interactions with users who were interested in the substance of the stored information and uncontaminated by prior association with the Intrex research effort. The experiences with users to date, as well as progress made…