Abstract
This paper summarizes an experiment that was conducted at the international research institute, the OECD Halden Reactor Project, Halden, Norway to assess the effectiveness of the diagnosis expert system DISKET (Diagnosis System Using Knowledge Engineering Technique) for helping nuclear reactor operators diagnose and treat malfunctions. The objectives of the experiment are described, the experimental design and the methods of data analysis are presented, and the results of the analysis are discussed. In summary, the DISKET system improved the performance of test subjects in performing the actions needed to treat the malfunction, but the effects on the diagnostic processes were not conclusive. The improvement in treatment performance is encouraging in itself, but the question of how this occurs has not been completely answered, because of the difficulty in measuring human performance for cognitive activites such as diagnosis. The need for improved methods for measuring diagnostic performance in future experiments is discussed.
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