Definition and Background

A "hit" is the term used to refer to a portion of text Metamorph retrieves in response to a specified query or search request. We use the term "hit" to mean the program has found or "hit" on something it was looking for. Hits can have varying degrees of relevance or validity, based on the number of intersections of concept matched within that delimited block of text.

An "intersection" is defined as an occurrence of at least one member of each of two sets of strings located within a section of text as demarcated by a specified beginning and ending delimiter.

A "set" is the group of possible strings a pattern matcher will look for, as specified by the search item. A set can be a list of words and word forms, a range of characters or quantities, or some other class of possible matches based on which pattern matcher Metamorph uses to process that item.

Intersection quantity refers to the number of unions of sets existing within the specified delimiters. The maximum number of intersections possible for any given query will be the maximum number of designated sets minus one.

The number of intersections present in any given hit directly determines how relevant that response will be to the stated query. Therefore, the designated intersection quantity can modulate the amount of abstraction or inference you wish to allow away from the original concept as stated in your query.

Because intersection quantity can be adjusted by the user to determine how tightly correlated the retrieved responses must be, the term "correlation threshold level" has in the past been used interchangeably with "intersection quantity" in earlier writings and versions of Metamorph. However, intersection quantity is a more precise lexical concept, and is therefore the preferred and more accurate term.

Intersections, whether calculated automatically by Metamorph or set by the user, signify the number of intersections of specified sets being searched for, to be matched anywhere within the delimited block of text; this could be within a sentence, paragraph or page or some other designated amount of text.

Metamorph provides a template of variables which go into a search, all of which can be stored so that one can analyze exactly what produced the search results and adjust them as desired. The intersection quantity variable is the most important in terms of designating how closely you wish to have the retrieved responses (hits) correlated to your search query.