Presents an overview of feedback within the cybernetics and social frameworks. These feedback concepts are then compared with the interactive feedback concept evolving within the framework of information seeking and retrieving, based on their conceptualization of the feedback loop and notion of information. (Author/AEF)

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…

Computer technology has been used since 1972 in the Madison, Wisconsin, public schools to control the flow of information required to support individualized instruction. Madison's computer-managed instruction system, MICA (Managed Instruction with Computer Assistance), operates interactively within individualized instruction programs to provide…

A ten-year research study designed a mechanized information system in the information processing field. Special attention was paid to implementation criteria entering into on-line retrieval through man-machine dialog from a remote typewriter or video terminal and four major areas were investigated: search strategies, machine stored indexer aids,…