Information Presentation Methods Research Articles

A divide-and-conquer algorithm for the automatic layout of large directed graphs

Methods for automatic presentation of relational information in the form of directed graphs are discussed. An overview of the graph-layout problem is presented along with a summary of several different layout algorithms. A divide-and-conquer layout algorithm called Compoze is described in detail. This algorithm produces especially good results on large graphs of several hundred vertices. >

Nutrition information topic and format preferences of older adults

Personal interviews were conducted with 116 free-living, yet frail older adults in an urban setting to determine their nutrition interests and their preferred methods of acquiring nutrition information. Two nutritionists specializing in aging, one health educator, and one trained senior volunteer conducted interviews at respondents' homes; respondents were either current or potential customers of a nonprofit home-delivery grocery service. The focused interviews used a pilot tested questionnaire designed to elicit basic program planning information: 1) topics of interest, 2) preferred presentation methods, including structure of class settings, and 3) current sources of nutrition information. Analysis of the results showed that frail elderly people are interested in a variety of topics relating to nutrition and health, especially getting their money's worth in buying foods and nutrient retention in food preparation. Respondents found written materials to be both the most interesting information presentation method and the most helpful information source. They identified other helpful sources of food/nutrition information as follows: food package labels, television programs, cookbooks, physicians and home economists, dietitians and nutritionists. Survey results can serve to guide effective educational strategies for older adults.

Judging response-outcome relations: the role of response-outcome contingency, outcome probability, and method of information presentation.

A series of four experiments investigated college students’ judgments of interevent contingency. Subjects were asked to judge the effect of a discrete response Itapping a wire) on the occurrence of a brief outcome (a radio’s buzzing). Pairings of the possible event-state combinations (response-outcome, response-no outcome, no response-outcome, no response-no outcome) were presented in a summary-table (Experiments 2 and 4), in an unbroken-time-line (Experimente 1, 2, and 4), or in a broken-time-line format (Experiment 3). Subjects judged the extent to which the response caused the outcome or prevented it from occurring. Across all methods of information presentation, judgments were a positive function of response-outcome contingency and outcome probability. In the unbroken-time-line condition, judgments of negative response-outcome contingencies were less extreme than judgments of equivalent positive contingencies. This asymmetry was smaller in the broken-time-line condition and in those conditions in which subjects were encouraged to segment an unbroken time line into discrete response outcome units. Finally, judgments of positive and negative relationships were generally symmetrical in the summary-table condition. Relative to the two time-line portrayals, summary table judgments were also less influenced by the overall probability of outcome occurrence. These judgment differences among format conditions suggest that, depending on the method of information presentation, subjects differently partition event sequences into discrete event pairings.

The Effects of Type of Information and Method of Dissemination on the Reporting of a Shoplifter

The present study demonstrated increased reporting rates of a staged shoplifting in a university bookstore. Two methods of information presentation (lecture format, mass‐media campaign) succeeded in producing these effects. The type of information given to 72 male and 99 female students was also varied and included: (1) how and why to report shoplifting, (2) the social‐psychological factors which inhibit reporting, and (3) a combination of these. All types of information increased the reporting rates compared to the control groups. The lecture format increased reporting rates above that of the mass‐media groups. No sex differences were found. The findings have implications for the way factual knowledge and attitudes interact in influencing behavior.

Sensory modality and method of item information presentation in memory

Investigated were differences in paired-associate learning for auditory versus visual modalities and within each modality the anticipation and study test methods of item presentation were compared. Extant reports re these two sensory modalities and of the two learning methods had been inconsistent. In this study of 40 university students, the learning of CVC-CVC nonsense syllable pairs was significantly better with the visual than with the auditory modality. The study-test method was significantly superior to the anticipation method in the visual mode. With auditory presentations, however, acquisition levels for both methods were the same. Significant interactions were observed between sensory modalities and methods of presentation. At present the retention interval theory (Izawa 1972–1979b) appears to account best for the varied findings with respect to the two methods of presentation.

FORMS AND METHODS OF WORK WITH SENIOR PUPILS IN THE CONDITIONS OF MUSEUM ENVIRONMENT WITH THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES (ON THE EXAMPLE OF STUDY OF HISTORY OF UKRAINE)

In the article the problems are examined in relation to forms and methods of work with the pupils of senior school in the conditions of museum environment while studying the history of Ukraine. Information technologies in museums are analysed as well as the traditional methods of information presentation. Maintenance of methods opens up after the overwhelming source of receipt of knowledges (verbal, evident, practical) and methods in grain to cogitative and cognitive activity (genesial, explanatory illustrative, problem searching, research). It is marked on that the use of information technologies in museums allows to perfect work of these establishments, activate the cognitive process of senior pupils in the conditions of museum environment.

The Use of Preliminary Information in Vocational Counseling

One hundred twenty‐one clients seeking vocational counseling were assigned to three experimental groups representing audio, visual, and audiovisual methods of information presentation, or to a control group. After exposure to information relevant to their concerns, they were given an opportunity to return for a regular appointment. The audio and visual methods differed significantly in terms of percent of those who returned (audio = 69 percent, visual = 39 percent). Returnees in the visual group averaged fewer counseling sessions although the differences were not statistically significant. In general, returnees had indicated a somewhat greater number of problem areas and more frequently were sophomores and seniors. Results suggest that tape recordings (audio method) tend to induce clients to return for further counseling more readily than does the same information in mimeographed form (visual method). The likelihood of a client returning is seen as a function of the type and urgency of the problem as well as the preliminary information he receives.

Language identification in the limit

Language learnability has been investigated. This refers to the following situation: A class of possible languages is specified, together with a method of presenting information to the learner about an unknown language, which is to be chosen from the class. The question is now asked, “Is the information sufficient to determine which of the possible languages is the unknown language?” Many definitions of learnability are possible, but only the following is considered here: Time is quantized and has a finite starting time. At each time the learner receives a unit of information and is to make a guess as to the identity of the unknown language on the basis of the information received so far. This process continues forever. The class of languages will be considered learnable with respect to the specified method of information presentation if there is an algorithm that the learner can use to make his guesses, the algorithm having the following property: Given any language of the class, there is some finite time after which the guesses will all be the same and they will be correct. In this preliminary investigation, a language is taken to be a set of strings on some finite alphabet. The alphabet is the same for all languages of the class. Several variations of each of the following two basic methods of information presentation are investigated: A text for a language generates the strings of the language in any order such that every string of the language occurs at least once. An informant for a language tells whether a string is in the language, and chooses the strings in some order such that every string occurs at least once. It was found that the class of context-sensitive languages is learnable from an informant, but that not even the class of regular languages is learnable from a text.

The Library Shelf

First, the statistics. This issue of Jane's—corrected to September 1, 1962—contains a total of 504 pages apart from the two page preface by the Editor and 24 pages of indexes at the end of the book. Divided into six separate sections, it contains descriptions of the aeroplanes of thirty‐five countries, the sailplanes of twenty‐four countries, the target drones of six countries, the air cushion vehicles of seven countries, the guided missiles, rockets and space vehicles of seventeen countries and the aero engines of fourteen countries. By adopting a new method of information presentation it has been possible to increase the amount of new data in the book without increasing the actual number of pages. The fact that this edition of Jane's is no mere rehash of the 1961–62 number is underlined further by the inclusion of almost 600 new illustrations.