Dissertation Information for Scott RobertsonNAME:
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SCHOOL: ADVISORS: COMMITTEE MEMBERS: MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected Title: GOAL, PLAN, AND OUTCOME TRACKING IN COMPUTER TEXT-EDITING PERFORMANCE
Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to study the formation and use of plans in several text-editing tasks. In the first experiment, plan formation was demonstrated by a reduction in the time to recognize particular text-editing tasks and to initiate actions. Also, chunking of plan units was demonstrated in pause time data from actual editing sessions. The intervals between plan units decreased from one experience with a set of tasks to another as plans became more routine. In the second experiment, subjects watched text-editing tasks being presented on a video display terminal and prepared written summaries of what they saw. They were able to pace the presentation rate by pressing a button to see each new action. When the subjects were instructed to write summaries after viewing each episode, they did not pause at plan boundaries. Rather, after becoming familiar with the tasks they moved quickly through each trial. Their summaries reflected a consistent plan-based interpretation of the tasks, however. When the subjects were instructed to stop during episodes to write summary statements, they stopped consistently at boundaries. Over trials, the number of stops to produce a summary statement decreased and stops became concentrated in major plan boundaries. I argue that it is important to represent the goals, plans, and outcomes of text editor users when describing their behavior. The usefulness of this approach in developing an intelligent help system is discussed. |
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