A Total Relevance and Document Interaction Effects Model for the Evaluation of Information Retrieval Processes.

Presents a model for information retrieval evaluation based on the notion of total relevance, a function derived from the traditional summation of relevance ratings over the documents in a collection. The model makes explicit the perceptual underpinnings of relevance assessments while allowing for consideration of interdocument dependencies. (37 references) (Author/CLB)