Login

Publications  •  Project Statistics

Glossary  •  Schools  •  Disciplines
People Search: 
   
Title/Abstract Search: 

Dissertation Information for Alexis Jean Jamieson

NAME:
- Alexis Jean Jamieson
- (Alias) Alexis Jamieson

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Maryland (USA) (1981)

ADVISORS:
- Dagobert Soergel

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Irene Lathrop Travis
- Jerry S. Kidd
- Hans Hanan Wellisch
- Ben Abraham Shneiderman

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: COMPREHENSION OF ENTRIES IN PRINTED INDEXES

Abstract: The problem area of this dissertation is comprehension of printed index entries. The specific objective was to evaluate the usefulness of the relational devices: term sequence and connectives between terms, in increasing users' success in scanning complex or ambiguous entries in printed indexes. The study raised questions of cognitive functioning, and two modes of processing index entries were proposed: surface key-term matching and semantic base matching of queries and entries.

Six indexes incorporating different values of the two experimental variables were prepared for three topics with varying degrees of ambiguity in term relationships. One hundred and twenty subjects, randomly assigned combinations of index types, scanned three indexes, one for each topic, to select index entries relevant to the topic questions. Two levels of relevance judgment were allowed, strict (or narrow) and lenient (or broad). Subjects' success rate was measured as a function of items they correctly marked as relevant (recall) and of items they correctly rejected as irrelevant (discrimination). Efficiency was measured as success in recall and discrimination divided by time required to complete the scanning tasks.

Data collected on the user performance measures of speed in scanning, recall, discrimination, and index preferences, as well as detailed examination of subjects' judgments on individual entries, led to several conclusions about user behavior in searching printed indexes as well as to general findings about the influence of the experimental variables on subjects' success in scanning complex entries for topics with different characteristics.

General conclusions were: (1) Connectives are very important for subjects' comprehension of complex entries if term relationships are not obvious. (2) It is important that term sequence be meaningful but there is little difference among dissimilar meaningful sequences.

Observations indicated other important factors affecting subjects' scanning speed and success in relevance judgments: line length in the index, typographical devices to isolate keywords in the entry (punctuation, capitalization), position of important keywords in the entry (the earlier the position the greater the likelihood of correct retrieval), the possibility of dividing the entry into chunks, and reading style.

MPACT Scores for Alexis Jean Jamieson

A = 0
C = 2
A+C = 2
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:26:40

Advisors and Advisees Graph