This research evaluates intelligent interface requirements for knowledge presentation in an expert system used for diagnostic problem solving. In a field study, interactions between employee expertise, knowledge presentation format (procedural vs. declarative), question type (requiring abstract vs. concrete knowledge organization), and task uncertainty are examined for employee problem-solving and decision-making performance (speed and accuracy). Also evaluated are confidence in system recommendations and lines-of-reasoning, as well as user satisfaction with the system interface. The study provides findings that are discussed within the context of intelligent interface requirements for organizational information systems. The results show that high-skill users perform significantly faster and more accurately when solving the problems and have self-reported confidence ratings that are higher than those of low-skill users. The expert system, however, has a greater impact on improving performance for low-skill users than for high-skill users. A relationship is found between skill level and task uncertainty indicating that different skill-level users require different presentation formats paralleling their conceptual representations of the problem. The interaction between skill level and knowledge organization is confirmed with results showing that low-skill users perform faster than high-skill users on questions requiring concrete knowledge organization; whereas high-skill users perform better when presented with questions requiring abstract knowledge organization.
The new technology of computer graphics makes it possible to create images on the screen that literally appear to pop out into the room. This is accomplished by creating separate images for the left and right eye and filtering them so that each eye receives the appropriate image. In the context of a scattergram, the binocular disparity information is interpreted by the brain as the z axis of a three dimensional x-y-z scattergram. In this article a convenient anaglyph method of accomplishing this on a standard IBM PC is presented. Also, a multi-color method using polarized projection is described and tested. The effectiveness of stereoscopic presentations is investigated within the context of managerial decision-making problems. When used to present continuous data in an x-y-z scattergram, the stereoscopic presentation resulted in greater accuracy and faster answers. However, when used with 3-D block diagrams to present semi-discrete data of the type usually presented by crosstab tables, the technique was less successful than a conventional crosstab presentation.