Wright J F, Morse D R, Tardivel G M
Department of Mathematical and Computing Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
Comput Appl Biosci. 1995 Feb;11(1):19-27. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/11.1.19.
In an attempt to overcome some of the drawbacks of existing taxonomic keys, we have experimented with a computerized version of a key, changing the interface to the key, but leaving the information contained in the key essentially unchanged. This is in contrast to most previous work on the use of computers in taxonomy, where work has concentrated on alternative identification techniques and techniques for manipulating taxonomic data. Hopkin's (1991) Key to the Woodlice of Britain and Ireland was converted (including the diagrams and colour photographs), into a hypertext document using the Unix Guide hypertext system. An experiment was conducted where test subjects with a wide range of experience of taxonomic keys and computing skills were asked to identify woodlouse specimens using the paper and hypertext forms of the keys. The results showed that test subjects were more likely to obtain an identification with the hypertext version of the key, they found it easier to use and preferred using it to the paper version of the key. However, there were indications that test subjects were more likely to obtain a misidentification using the hypertext key than the paper version of the key. Further work is needed to discover the possible causes of the increased frequency of misidentifications, and ways in which the usability of hypertext keys can be further enhanced.
为了克服现有分类检索表的一些缺点，我们对检索表的计算机化版本进行了试验，改变了检索表的界面，但其中所含信息基本保持不变。这与以往大多数在分类学中使用计算机的工作形成对比，以往的工作主要集中在替代识别技术和处理分类数据的技术上。霍普金（1991年）的《英国和爱尔兰木虱检索表》（包括图表和彩色照片）使用Unix Guide超文本系统被转换成了一个超文本文档。进行了一项实验，让具有广泛分类检索表经验和计算机技能的测试对象使用纸质版和超文本版检索表来识别木虱标本。结果表明，测试对象使用超文本版检索表更有可能获得鉴定结果，他们发现超文本版检索表更易于使用，并且比起纸质版检索表更喜欢使用它。然而，有迹象表明，测试对象使用超文本检索表比使用纸质版检索表更容易出现错误鉴定。需要进一步开展工作来找出错误鉴定频率增加的可能原因，以及进一步提高超文本检索表可用性的方法。
