A total of 840 junior and senior-level undergraduate business students particpated in three experiments that compared computer-generated graphical forms of data presentation to traditional tabular reports. The first experiment compared tables and bar charts for their effects on readability, interpretation accuracy, and decision making. No differences in interpretation accuracy or decision quality were observed for the two groups, although tabular reports were rated as "easier to read and understand" than graphical reports. The second experiment compared line plots to tables for their effects on interpretation accuracy and decision quality. Subjects with graphical reports outperformed those with tables. There were no meaningful differences in interpretation accuracy across treatment groups. The third experiment compared graphical and tabular reports for their ability to convey a "message" to the reader. Only in situations in which a vast amount of information was presented and relatively simple impressions were to be made, did subjects given graphs outperform those using tables.
This program of cumulative experiments indicates that generalized claims of superiority of graphic presentation are unsupported, at least for decision-related activities. In fact, the experiments suggest that the effectiveness of the data display format is largely a function of the characteristics of the task at hand, and that impressions gleaned from "one shot" studies of the effectiveness of the use of graphs may be nothing more than situationally dependent artifacts.
Systems and Networking
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The design and building of Enchère, a distributed electronic marketing system
Building and prototyping an agricultural electronic marketing system involved experimenting with distributed synchronization, atomic activity, and commit protocols and recovery algorithms.
Data quality and due process in large interorganizational record systems
As societies have become more dependent on information systems to conduct and record transactions between organizations and individuals, interorganizational computer systems have become a widely used method of coordinating the actions of independent organizations. This article examines the quality of data in one important interorganizational system—the criminal-record system of the United States.
Selected papers from the sixth international conference on information systems
There are a number of alternative tools and methods for building and designing information systems for organizational use. Each tool or design alternative has its advocates. Benefits and advantages are proposed or claimed; little empirical evidence is presented.
The two selected papers from the 1985 International Conference on Information Systems (Indianapolis, December 15-18) present empirical laboratory experiments to provide evidence as to tools and design alternatives. The first paper by Dickson, DeSanctis, and McBride describes three experiments to compare traditional tabular presentation with graphic presentation. The experiments are designed to build cumulative research results around the issue of the task the reader of the information is to perform upon receiving the information. The second paper by Vessey and Weber provides experimental evidence comparing methods for documenting a problem: decision tree, decision table, and structured English. The three methods are frequently presented as alternatives; the experiments compare them.
Two studies do not settle an issue as complex as comparison of alternative tools and methods: they begin to provide the evidence needed. They also illustrate one well-established research approach—the laboratory experiment. The advantage of laboratory experiments is the control that can be obtained; field studies and experience of practitioners can be understood more fully in the context of such laboratory results.
Data compression on a database system
A general-purpose data-compression routine—implemented on the IMS database system—makes use of context to achieve better compression than Huffman's method applied character by character. It demonstrates that a wide variety of data can be compressed effectively using a single, fixed compression routine with almost no working storage.
Describing Prolog by its interpretation and compilation
Since its conception, Prolog has followed a developmental course similar to the early evolution of LISP. Although the version of Prolog described here typifies that currently in use, it should be considered within the framework of language evolution.
Selecting MIS projects by steering committee
Steering committees have recently gained vast acceptance in organizations as the mechanism used to select management information systems (MIS) projects. Because of their widespread adoption and their differences from other selection mechanisms with respect to orientation, steering committees were chosen for study. Data from 92 projects selected from 32 organizations were analyzed. As hypothesized, projects selected by steering committees were found to differ significantly from those chosen via other selection mechanisms. The implications of this result for organizations using steering committees to select MIS projects are presented.
Software aspects of strategic defense systems
A former member of the SDIO Panel on Computing in Support of Battle Management explains why he believes the “Star Wars” effort will not achieve its stated goals.
In the fall of 1981, a Japanese report officially initiated the quest for fifth-generation computers that would encompass the functions of knowledge processing and artificial intelligence. The conceptual underpinnings behind Prolog—Japan's language of choice for these activities—are presented here in a way that suggests why Prolog or a similar language might be considered a model for designing the computers of the future.
Discovering the secrets of DNA
Sophisticated software tools are becoming increasingly important in helping biologists understand how nature operates. Symbolic pattern-recognition and artificial-intelligence methodologies are contributing to the development of such software.
Modeling california earthquakes and earth structures
Seismology has burgeoned into a modern science—force-fed by federal funding to advance technology for detecting underground nuclear explosions and predicting earthquakes, and by industry to improve tools for gas and oil exploration. Computers, seismic instrument systems, telemetry, and data reduction have played key roles in this growth.
Computing in higher education: the Athena experience
Project Athena at MIT is an experiment to explore the potential uses of advanced computer technology in the university curriculum. About 60 different educational development projects, spanning virtually all of MIT's academic departments, are already in progress.
Toward the domestication of microelectronics
The great challenge for computer science in this decade is to make computers usable by everyone. Computers, long viewed as a dehumanizing force, will become the most powerful means of personal creative expression and communication ever known.
Growth of distributed systems has attained unstoppable momentum. If we better understood how to think about, analyze, and design distributed systems, we could direct their implementation with more confidence.
Pilots of the future: human or computer?
As more and more automation is incorporated in aircraft, the essential question becomes one of autonomy: Should the automated system serve as the human pilot's assistant, or vice versa?
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), now being planned at NASA, will require a prodigious amount of highly concurrent signal processing to be done in real time by special-purpose hardware.
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