language: en

A Feedback Mechanism for Query by Navigation

F.C. Berger Th.P. van der Weide n

[Published as:]

F.C. Berger and Th.P. van der Weide.

A Feedback Mechanism for Query by Navigation.

Technical Report CSI-R9413,
Computing Science Institute, University of Nijmegen,
Nijmegen, The Netherlands,
October 1994.

Abstract The Two-Level Hypermedia Paradigm sees an Information Retrieval System as consisting of a document network (the Hyperbase) and a descriptor (term) network (the Hyperindex). Query by Navigation is a process whereby the searcher gives a description of the Information Need by travelling through the descriptor network. This paper presents a formalism for expressing the effects of traversing the Hyper-index on the elements of the Hyperindex. This formalism makes use of probabilities for mod-elling the searcher's behavious. The events which can occur during the search process are discussed and modelled. Some important properties, which are reasonable to demand of a retrieval system, can be proven to be valid if this formalism is adopted. A mechanism for assigning a measure of relevance to documents is presented. This uses the formalism mentioned above. An example will show the effectiveness of The aspect of relevance feedback and its role in Query by Navigation is introduced by examining the different level on which the searcher can offer information for weeding out unwanted sections of the search space. In order to illustrate the workings of Query by Navigation a small example is included.

Dept. of Information Systems, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Nijmegen,
Toernooiveld 1, 6525 ED Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Keywords: information retrieval, relevance feedback, user modelling, query formulation

[Classification: AMS 68P20; CR H.3.3, H.5.1]

1 Introduction