The studies investigated the relative efficacy of different instructional aids for the learning and use of a hierarchical database system. Previous research has suggested that subjects who study a spatial map of the structure and objects in a database perform better on data retrieval tasks than subjects who study other types of material. The results of the present studies suggest that analogies are useful instructional aids for learning hierarchical databases.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BillingsleyP.A. (1982). Navigation through Hierarchical Menu Structures: Does it help to have a map?Proceedings of the Human Factors Society, 26th Annual Meeting, 103–107.
2.
GentnerD. (1983). Structure mapping: A theoretical framework for analogy. Cognitive Science, 7, 155–170.
3.
KierasD.BovairS. (1984). The role of mental model in learning to operate a device. Cognitive Science, 8, 255–273.
4.
KramerA.F.SchumacherR.M.Human-Computer Interaction: A Brief Glimpse of an Emerging Field, in press.
5.
NormanD.A. (1983). Some observations on mental models. In GentnerD.StevensA.L. (Eds.) Mental Models.Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
6.
PartonD.HuffmanK.PridgenP.NormanK.ShneidermanB. (1985). Learning a menu selection tree: Training methods compared. Behaviour and Information Technology, 2, 81–89.
7.
YoungR.M. (1983). Surrogates and mappings: Two kinds of conceptual models for interactive devices. In GentnerD.StevensA.L. (Eds.) Mental Models.Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
