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INFORMATION OVERLOAD - PEACE OR WAR WITH THE COMPUTER - SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT 11

NCJ Number
13246
Author(s)
L T WILKINS
Date Published
1973
Length
38 pages
Annotation
DISCUSSION OF PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS OF USING COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS TO AID HUMAN DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES IN PAROLE DECISIONS.
Abstract
EXPERIMENTS ARE CITED TO SHOW THAT THERE ARE IMPORTANT PROBLEMS WITH REGARD TO HUMAN DECISION-MAKING WHICH ARE RELATED TO THE SUBJECTIVE PROCESSING OF THE DATA. AS A RESULT, DIFFERENT DECISION-MAKERS USING A COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION SYSTEM GEARED TO INDIVIDUAL CASE MATERIAL WOULD USE THE SYSTEM IN DIFFERENT WAYS AND WITH DIFFERENT RESULTS. ALSO, SINCE A SUBJECTIVE ASSESSMENT STILL ULTIMATELY TERMINATES THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS, THE QUESTION OF USING ALL RELEVANT INFORMATION IS NOT SOLVED SIMPLY BECAUSE THE INFORMATION IS PRESENTED BY A COMPUTER. FURTHER EXPERIMENTS HAVE, IN FACT, SHOWN THAT THE QUANTITY, SEQUENCE, AND FORM OF INFORMATION PRESENTED TO DECISION-MAKERS ARE LIKELY TO INFLUENCE THE DECISIONS IRRESPECTIVE OF THE CONTENT. THE REPORT CONCLUDES THAT IT IS TOO SIMPLISTIC TO BELIEVE THAT ALL DECISION-MAKING PROBLEMS WOULD BE SOLVED IF ONLY ALL THE INFORMATION WERE READILY AVAILABLE.