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The human/computer i n t e r f a c e f o r many i n f o r m a t i o n r e t r i e v a l systems i s a h i e r a r c h i c a l menu s t r u c t u r e . Although t h i s t y p e o f i n t e r f a c e has several advantages f o r n o v i c e users, t h e r e i s g r e a t p o t e n t i a l f o r c o n f u s i o n and d i s o r i e n t a t i o n when menu s t r u c t u r e s a r e l a r g e and complex. T h i s experiment demonstrated t h a t s u b j e c t s g i v e n t h e o p p o r t u n i t y t o study a map o f t h e menu o r g a n i z a t i o n f o r a p r o t o t y p e database showed an o v e r a l l improvement i n i n f o r m a t i o n r e t r i e v a l performance across time. Subjects who s t u d i e d a l i n e a r index o f c o r r e c t menu c h o i c e sequences showed a general d e c l i n e i n performance as t h e t i m e between s t u d y i n g t h e index and new r e t r i e v a l t a s k s increased. A c o n t r o l group was slower and made more unnecessary choices than e i t h e r t h e map o r index group. The r e s u l t s suggest t h a t access t o a p i c t o r i a l r e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f a menu s t r u c t u r e f a c i l i t a t e s t h e development o f a workable, r e l a t i v e l y l o n g -l a s t i n g mental model o f t h a t s t r u c t u r e .

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Two experiments were conducted in which men, nonnally cycling women, and women on menstrual cycles generated by the regular ingestion of oral contraceptives were compared for hand steadiness. In Experiment 1subjects were tested on a standard laboratory hand-steadiness task. In Experiment 2 subjects were similarly tested while holding handguns of varying weights. In both experiments nonnally cycling women were steadiest, women on oral contraceptives were least steady, and men were intennediate. The relative differences lasted at least eight sessions. In addition, nonnally cycling women were found to experience a large decrement in perfonnance during the premenstrual phase of their cycles. It was concluded that the men and women differ in hand steadiness and that the difference is repeatable, persistent, and at least somewhat generalizable. Oral contraceptive use and menstrual events must be taken into account in considering steadiness in women and should be considered more generally in perfonnance assessment by psychological and human factors researchers.

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