Other Factors Influencing ‘Type of Match’

Influencing the difficulty of the type of match are several related factors shown in the overview below:

Number of Search Phrases

When locating information in a text or document, the locate task is made more difficult as the number of phrases which make up the question or directive increases. For example, questions with one independent clause are easier than questions with one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses. The more phrases that have to be matched, the more difficult the task. Look at the following examples:

Directive comprising one main clause:
‘Enter your annual income for 2000 in box B.’

Question with one main clause and one dependent clause:
If the regional unemployment rate is 9.5%, what is the minimum number of work hours needed to qualify for EI?

In the second example, the subordinate clause contains words and phrases that have to be matched with similar words and phrases in the text. Without the subordinate clause, the question could be answered using only one column of the Employment Insurance table shown on page 18, matching ‘number of hours’ in the question to the column label for the list of hours, and scanning for the lowest amount (420 hrs). When the information about the unemployment rate is added to the question, another phrase, or in this case a number, has to be matched to locate the required information (560 hrs). It is a more complex task requiring more phrases to be matched.