Digital Commons Network^™

An empirical study was performed to train naive subjects in the use of a prototype Boolean logic-based information retrieval system on a bibliographic database. Subjects were undergraduates with little or no prior computing experience. Subjects trained with a conceptual model of the system performed better than subjects trained with procedural instructions, but only on complex, problem-solving tasks. Performance was equal on simple tasks. Differences in patterns of interaction with the system (based on a stochastic process model) showed parallel results. Most subjects were able to articulate some description of the system's operation, but few articulated a model similar to the …