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A distributed view of cognition is discussed in terms of its applicability to external information storage and the problem of designing environmental support for notetaking and managing large personal databases. The cognitive issues of representing ideas in notes and using those notes in various tasks are explored in terms of the user's goals and the environmental constraints. Several methods of study were undertaken: (1) a longitudinal study of an individual taking notes and writing a paper using a computer hypertext interface designed for these tasks; (2) experimental tests for context effects when using notes to cue recall; (3) informal observations of an individual filing index cards and several individuals searching through class notes; and (4) informal analyses of cues encoded in class notes, office files, index cards, and NoteCards. An individual was observed over several months as he collected notes and wrote a paper using the Xerox NoteCards hypertext system. The stages of his task--notetaking, filing, organizing, and writing--are characterized by distinct activities and tools. The four main, overlapping organizations for his notes--source, topic, outline, and paper--are compared. Controlled experiments tested for context effects during note review but showed no effect of context. Short notes were taken while reading passages of text and presented one week later to cue recall for the passages. In one condition, notes from a passage were separated at test and interspersed between notes from other passages. Greater segmentation of separated notes appeared to reduce their ability to cue recall. Browsing and data retrieval strategies for loosely structured personal databases and multiple organizations are discussed. Visual discriminability is important during browsing and review and must be enhanced in computing environments. Different classes of encoding features are described with observations about their use across domains. Cues may be discriminating, attentional, directional, revisional, and reliability determining. Cues from these different classes were combined, sometimes redundantly, to encode such things as relationships, levels of importance, and the usefulness of the material. Directional features (boundaries and connectors) are particularly important during encoding and interpretation of spatial organizations.
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