SCIENTISTS AND INFORMATION I. USING CLUSTER ANALYSIS TO IDENTIFY INFORMATION STYLEPALMER, JUDITH
1991 Journal of Documentation
doi: 10.1108/eb026873
Semistructured, indepth interviews were used to explore the influence of personality, discipline and organisational structure on the information behaviour of biochemists, entomologists and statisticians working at an agricultural research station n 67. Cluster analysis was used to reveal groupings in the data. Library and documentbased activities did not differentiate individuals. Computer use, both for scientific work and information handling, and the degree of enthusiasm displayed for actively seeking information divided the population. Discipline, work role and time spent in the subject field and organisation were the most important determinants of information behaviour. There were some indications of malefemale differences in information behaviour. A comparison of the groups obtained from the cluster analysis with a subjective classification showed the former to be more robust in later analysis.
THE PROFESSION'S MODELS OF INFORMATION A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC ANALYSISGREEN, REBECCA
1991 Journal of Documentation
doi: 10.1108/eb026874
This study establishes three predominant cognitive models of information and the information transfer process manifest in the literature of library and information science, based on a linguistic analysis of phrases incorporating the word information from a random sample of abstracts in the LISA database. The direct communication DC and indirect communication IC models drawn from Reddy's frameworks of metalinguistic usage adopt the perspective of the information system the informationseeking IS model takes the viewpoint of the information user. Two disturbing findings are presented 1. core elements of the DC and IC models are more weakly supported by the data than are most of the peripheral elements and 2. even though the IS model presents the information user's perspective, the data emphasise the role of the information system. These findings suggest respectively that the field lacks a coherent model of information transfer per se and that our model of information retrieval is mechanistic, oblivious to the cognitive models of end users.
A COGNITIVE PROCESS MODEL OF DOCUMENT INDEXINGFARROW, JOHN F.
1991 Journal of Documentation
doi: 10.1108/eb026875
Classification, indexing and abstracting can all be regarded as summarisations of the content of a document. A model of text comprehension by indexers including classifiers and abstractors is presented, based on task descriptions which indicate that the comprehension of text for indexing differs from normal fluent reading in respect of operational time constraints, which lead to text being scanned rapidly for perceptual cues to aid gist comprehension comprehension being task oriented rather than learning oriented, and being followed immediately by the production of an abstract, index, or classification and the automaticity of processing of text by experienced indexers working within a restricted range of text types. The evidence for the interplay of perceptual and conceptual processing of text under conditions of rapid scanning is reviewed. The allocation of mental resources to text processing is discussed, and a cognitive process model of abstracting, indexing and classification is described.
A NOTE ON THE LITERAL INTELLIGENCE OF COMPUTERS AND DOCUMENTSWARNER, JULIAN
1991 Journal of Documentation
doi: 10.1108/eb026876
Speculations on the possibility of computers displaying intelligence are usually traced to Turing's 1950 paper, Computing machinery and intelligence. Claims for the literal intelligence of an appropriately programmed computer were publicly refuted by Searle in 1980. Optimism about the adequate simulation of intelligence is now further diminished. Analogies between the computer and the brain or mind have persisted. A contrasting perspective which links computers with documents through writing and through the faculty for constructing socially shared systems of signs has also been developed. From this perspective it can be shown that i claims for the literal intelligence of a computer rest on a similar basis to claims for the intelligence of a document, the production of depersonalised linguistic output, and ii that such claims are subject to an identical objection, that linguistic output is made available without a prior act of comprehension by the artefact. This paper places the Turing test in its intellectual and historical context. A claim that written words can give the appearance of intelligence, without the human capacity for dialectic response, is found in Plato's Phaedrus. This, too, must be placed in its historical context of a transition from predominantly oral to oral and written communication. Demonstrating that there are extensive similarities between the claims of computers and documents to literal intelligence is part of a progressive demystification of the computer.