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Understanding TREC Results - the Role of Statistics

Published

Author(s)

Walter S. Liggett Jr, Paul D. Over

Abstract

The challenge in empirical development of information retrieval systems at TREC is obtaining general conclusions from IR system responses to a sample of perhaps 50 topics, that is, 50 statements of information need. Treating such a sample as a simple random sample and using a univariate performance measure to describe each search result does not provide sufficient sensitivity for many purposes. In this paper, we contend that greater sensitivity can be gained through study of the natural language basis for the dependence of system performance on topic.
Proceedings Title
Proceedings of the 53rd Session of the International Statistical Institute
Conference Dates
August 22-29, 2001
Conference Location
Seoul, KO
Conference Title
International Statistical Institute

Keywords

information retrieval, multidimensional scaling, query formation, rank correlation, search engines, system evaluation

Citation

Liggett, W. and Over, P. (2001), Understanding TREC Results - the Role of Statistics, Proceedings of the 53rd Session of the International Statistical Institute, Seoul, KO (Accessed December 2, 2024)

Issues

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Created August 1, 2001, Updated February 17, 2017