Friedman C P, Wildemuth B M, Muriuki M, Gant S P, Downs S M, Twarog R G, de Bliek R
University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, USA.
Proc AMIA Annu Fall Symp. 1996:2-6.
This study explored which of two modes of access to a biomedical database better supported problem solving in bacteriology. Boolean access, which allowed subjects to frame their queries as combinations of keywords, was compared to hypertext access, which allowed subjects to navigate from one database node to another. The accessible biomedical data were identical across systems. Data were collected from 42 first year medical students, each randomized to the Boolean or hypertext system, before and after their bacteriology course. Subjects worked eight clinical case problems, first using only their personal knowledge and, subsequently, with aid from the database. Database retrievals enabled students to answer questions they could not answer based on personal knowledge only. This effect was greater when personal knowledge of bacteriology was lower. The results also suggest that hypertext was superior to Boolean access in helping subjects identify possible infectious agents in these clinical case problems.
本研究探讨了两种访问生物医学数据库的模式中，哪一种能更好地支持细菌学中的问题解决。将允许受试者将查询表述为关键词组合的布尔访问模式，与允许受试者从一个数据库节点导航到另一个节点的超文本访问模式进行了比较。两个系统中可访问的生物医学数据是相同的。在42名一年级医学生的细菌学课程前后，分别从每个随机分配到布尔系统或超文本系统的学生那里收集数据。受试者处理了8个临床病例问题，首先仅依靠他们的个人知识，随后借助数据库的帮助。数据库检索使学生能够回答仅基于个人知识无法回答的问题。当对细菌学的个人知识较少时，这种效果更明显。结果还表明，在帮助受试者识别这些临床病例问题中可能的感染源方面，超文本访问优于布尔访问。
