We have designed and implemented an intelligent database assistant to aid the user in formulating a query. The system, named RABBIT, relies upon a new paradigm for retrieval, retrieval by reformulation, based on a psychological theory of human remembering. To make a query, the user interactively constructs a description of his target item(s) by criticizing successive example (and counterexample) instances. One of the key innovations in RABBIT is that instances from the database are presented to the user from a well-defined perspective inferred from the user's query description and the structure of the knowledge base. Among other things, this constructed perspective prevents the user from creating semantically improper query descriptions. RABBIT particularily facilitates users who approach a database with only a vague idea of what it is that they want and who thus, need to be guided in the (re)formulation of their queries. RABBIT is also of substantial value to casual users who have limited knowledge of a given database or who must deal with a multitude of databases.
['Frederich N. Tou', 'Michael D. Williams', 'Richard Fikes', 'D. Austin Henderson', 'Thomas W. Malone']
RABBIT: an intelligent database assistant