Proposes an extended vector-processing scheme that extracts information from hypertext links to enhance retrieval effectiveness. Evaluates the impact of bibliographic references, bibliographic coupling, cocitation and document representative relationships. Shows that hypertext links do not always improve average precision, and interdocument…

The relationships of task complexity, necessary information types, information channels and sources are analyzed at the task level on the basis of a qualitative investigation. Data were collected in a public administration setting, and the findings indicate systematic and logical relationships among the factors analyzed. (54 references)…

This study used think-aloud protocols to examine the responses of readers to two newspaper science articles. When readers encountered information they could not understand, they used reading strategies; responses illustrate how individual predispositions, social affiliations, and information processing can influence impressions of science news.…

This literature review summarizes humor theory as an instructional strategy and provides examples of humor research. Discusses relationships between humor, affect, motivation, information processing, and learner characteristics. Provides six guidelines for incorporating humor in computer-based instruction (CBI) and proposes a research agenda for…

Discusses the 1995 OCLC/NCSA Metadata Workshop that met to define a standard set of data elements for describing network-accessible information resources. These document data elements had to be simple enough for authors and publishers to use, to facilitate discovery and retrieval, and to be useful as a basis for descriptive cataloging. (JKP)

One way to avoid the danger of foster children losing permanence and drifting in the child welfare system is to improve the monitoring of children by using modern information technology. The feasibility of the use of a clinical information system in Israel is examined. (BC)

Presents an overview of statutory and non-statutory data-protection provisions currently governing the processing of personal data in Canada's private sector, including federal and provincial legislation and efforts at self-regulation through voluntary codes of practice. Considers a more comprehensive system of regulation, contemporary policy…

Discusses the contingency approach to organizational design, information processing as a critical contingent of design, and use of organismic and mechanistic structures within an independent merchant bank. Proposes that a more appropriate model is needed which takes into account the changing nature of information processing and is flexible enough…

Considers the contribution to information-processing accounts of human intelligence differences made by Arthur Jensen, commending his persistence in research and noting his reductionist orientation. Explores the question of correlated vectors studied by Jensen. (SLD)

Examined persistence of sensory memory by studying developmental differences in recall of attended and ignored lists of digits for second-graders, fifth-graders, and adults. Found developmental increase in the persistence of memory only for the final item in an ignored list, which is the item for which sensory memory is thought to be the most…

The periodic TRECs (Text Retrieval Conferences) have reported the results of a variety of recall studies in large-scale document retrieval. While the efforts of TREC are noteworthy and laudable, there are reasons why its results, especially the recall values that are central to its conclusions, should be accepted with some caution. (Contains 17…

Finding information on the Web without encountering numerous false positives poses a challenge to multimedia information retrieval systems (MMIR). This research focuses on improving precision and recall in an MMIR system by interactively combining text processing with image processing in both the indexing and retrieval phases. A picture search…

Shape Recovery Analysis (SHERA), a new visual analytical technique, is applied to the N-Gram hypothesis on matched Japanese-English technical documents. Results reveal compaction in the translation of Japanese subject terms to English subject terms. The biagram approach to the Japanese data yields a remarkable similarity to the matching visualized…

Reviews and discusses critically the development during the last decade of the cognitive approach to information retrieval research and theory. The focus is analytic and empirical research on the complex nature of information need formation and situation, their inherent association with the concept of relevance, and the development of cognitive…

As part of an ongoing research program, the authors investigated the use of single-voiced narration and multi-voiced characterizations/monologues in a formative evaluation study of an instructional lesson on information processing. That lesson employed a design based on the use of content-related metaphors and a metaphorical graphical user…