Decisionmaking is the process of choosing among alternatives, or turning inputs into outputs. In a situation of information overload, inputs exceed the decisionmaker's capacity to assimilate and act on the information as well as his ability to evaluate every alternative. Decisionmakers have a variety of responses to information overload, some of…

THE VERSATILITY AND ADVANTAGES OF USING ON-LINE INTERACTIVE DISPLAYS ARE ILLUSTRATED BY EXAMPLES FROM (1) THE GENERAL PURPOSE DISPLAY SYSTEM (GPDS), (2) THE PATTERN LEARNING PARSER (PLP II), AND (3) THE BIBLIOGRAPHIC ON-LINE DISPLAY SYSTEM (BOLD). ALTHOUGH THESE SYSTEMS ARE DESIGNED FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES THEY ALL UTILIZE DISPLAYS AS COMMUNICATION…

Twenty-two decision groups in three manufacturing and three research and development organizations are studied to identify the characteristics of the environment that contribute to decision unit members experiencing uncertainty in decisionmaking. (Author)

AS COMPUTERS ARE USED FOR INCREASINGLY COMPLEX OPERATIONS SUCH AS RETRIEVING DOCUMENTS AND ANALYZING SENTENCES, IT BECOMES APPARENT THAT HUMAN DECISION-MAKING IS STILL AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF THE PROCESS. THE USE OF THE ON-LINE INTERACTIVE CAPABILITY OF TODAY'S THIRD-GENERATION COMPUTERS SUPPORTED BY TYPEWRITER AND DISPLAY SCOPE TERMINALS MAKES…

IN GENERAL, PROBLEM SOLUTIONS CAN BE FOUND ALONG A CONTINUUM OF ABSTRACTION FROM THE SPECIFIC TO THE GENERAL. THERE IS, AT ANY GIVEN POINT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOLUTION, A MOST EFFICIENT OR OPTIMUM STRATEGY. IN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS THE ULTIMATE SOLUTION IS USUALLY OBTAINED, AT A MORE SPECIFIC RATHER THAN AT A MORE ABSTRACT LEVEL. THE…

The effectiveness of the Delphi Technique is evaluated in terms of immediate and delayed controlled information feedback (feedback within 5 seconds as compared with a 24-hour delay); and the relationships that exist among measures of integrative complexity, estimations about the time of occurrence of future events, and time delay between task…

This paper considers the design and analysis of feeding back information about achievement test results to teachers and students in a high school classroom. An introductory section discusses the designing and administering of tests throughout the year in such a fashion as to provide pre-instruction, post-instruction, and retention achievement…

The work of a three-year series of experimental studies of human cognition is summarized in this report. Proglem solving and learning in man-machine interaction was investigated, as well as relevant variables and processes. The work included four separate projects: (1) computer-aided problem solving, (2) computer-aided instruction techniques, (3)…