ERIC Number: ED244613
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1984-Jan
Pages: 59
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Computer-Based Job Aiding: Problem Solving at Work. Technical Report No. 11.
Stone, David E.; Hutson, Barbara A.
As part of an ongoing effort to understand the processes people employ in reading technical material and the ways in which computer based job aids can assist people in doing complex tasks, a study was conducted to determine how subjects engaged in an assembly task use a detailed and hierarchically organized information structure (Hypertext) to meet their information needs. The computer based job aid used explains how to assemble a miniature loading cart and allows viewers to call up text seen earlier or Hypertext definitional and graphics frames. Subjects were 20 adults, including electrical engineers, stockboys, secretaries, graduate students, and teachers. It was found that subject performance on the assembly task was noticeably better than in previous studies employing the same task; subjects as a group selected graphic information most often, dictionary information next, and sometimes made rechecks of text or nontext information; almost all the possible information sources were used at least once by a substantial proportion of subjects; responses to different sites in the assembly information program varied widely; subjects differed widely in the number and patterning of information requests made; and individual online problem solving strategies included different combinations of input translation, selection and application of a problem solving method, regrouping, and generation of subgoals. It was concluded that it may be useful to include a variety of kinds of information in a technical information system for job aiding, and to allow subjects a high degree of control over requests for information. A 12-item bibliography is provided. (ESR)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Researchers
Language: English
Sponsor: Office of Naval Research, Arlington, VA. Personnel and Training Research Programs Office.
Authoring Institution: Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY. Dept. of Education.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A