WHY A DIAGRAM IS (SOMETIMES) WORTH 10000 WORDS
WHY A DIAGRAM IS (SOMETIMES) WORTH 10000 WORDS
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DOI：
10.1016/s0364-0213(87)80026-5
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发表时间：
1987-01-01
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
SIMON, HA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
LARKIN, JH;SIMON, HA
我们通过开发信息处理系统的替代模型来区分图解和句子的纸和笔表示信息，这些模型在信息上是等价的，并且可以被描述为句子或图解。句式表征是连续的，就像语篇中的命题一样。图表表示按平面中的位置进行索引。图表表示法通常还显示仅在句子表示法中隐含的信息，因此必须计算这些信息，有时需要花费很大代价才能使其明确可用。然后，我们比较了这些表示法在解决数学和物理中的几个说明性问题时的计算效率。当两个表示在信息上等价时，它们的计算效率取决于作用于它们的信息处理操作符。两组操作员在识别模式的能力、他们可以直接执行的干扰以及他们的控制策略(特别是搜索的控制)方面可能不同。图表和句子表示支持在所有这些方面都不同的运算符。在一种表示上工作的操作员可能很容易识别特征，或者直接做出在另一种表示中难以实现的推断。然而，最重要的是在搜索信息的效率和信息的明确性方面的差异。在我们称之为图解的表示法中，信息是按位置组织的，通常，进行推理所需的许多信息都存在于单个位置，并且是显式的。此外，问题中的下一个逻辑步骤的线索可能出现在相邻位置。因此，问题的解决可以通过流畅地横切图表来进行，并且可能需要对已经隐含的元素进行非常少的搜索或计算。
We distinguish diagrammatic from sentential paper-and-pencil representation of information by developing alternative models of information-processing systems that are informationally equivalent and that can be characterized as sentential or diagrammatic. Sentential representations are sequential, like the propositions in a text. Diagrammatic representations are indexed by location in a plane. Diagrammatic representations also typically display information that is only implicit in sentential representations and that therefore has to be computed, sometimes at great cost, to make it explicit for use. We then contrast the computational efficiency of these representations for solving several illustrative problems in mathematics and physics. When two representations are informationally equivalent, their computational efficiency depends on the information-processing operators that act on them. Two sets of operators may differ in their capabilities for recognizing patterns, in the interferences they can carry out directly, and in their control strategies (in particular, the control of search). Diagrammatic and sentential representations support operators that differ in all of these respects. Operators working on one representation may recognize features readily or make inferences directly that are difficult to realize in the other representation. Most important, however, are differences in the efficiency of search for information and in the explicitness of information. In the representations we call diagrammatic, information is organized by location, and often much of the information needed to make an inference is present and explicit at a single location. In addition, cues to the next logical step in the problem may be present at an adjacent location. Therefore problem solving can proceed through a smooth transversal of the diagram, and may require very little search or computation of elements that had been implicit.