An Evaluation of Experimental How-Malfunctioned Codes

Abstract

In three learning-recall studies, the existing coding procedure by which Air Force maintenance technicians record and describe equipment malfunctions was compared to four experimental codes. The four three-symbol experimental codes included all numeric symbols, all alphabetical symbols, alphanumeric symbols, and a mnemonic code that had a high association value with the corresponding descriptor statements. Performance using the five experimental conditions was evaluated in three separate studies: first, under short-term recall, second, under paired-associate learning, and third, under long-term recall. All experiments demonstrated superior performance with the mnemonic code condition. The mnemonic codes produced approximately one-half the average error rate for short-term recall, were twice as easily learned, and achieved nearly half the error rate for long-term recall when compared to the existing coding technique.