Multiple fault diagnosis and human behavior: Diagnosing a two-bit binary adder
John Howard Mendenhall · Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) · 1990
A 2-bit binary adder was simulated to examine the effects of multiple faults on troubleshooting behavior.The multiple faults were two broken connections between components of the adder.An a priori analysis of the symptoms displayed by the dual faults revealed different types of interactions associated with the various dual faults.Interaction types were classified according to the predicted levels of difficulty experienced by subjects diagnosing the dual faults.Sixteen electrical engineering and computer science students were recruited as subjects.Each subject diagnosed four dual faults, one each from four different interaction classifications.The results did not support the predicted difficulty levels assigned to the interaction classifications.Subjects were able to diagnose the dual faults using the symptom states that displayed symptoms of one broken connection or the other, but not both and thus avoid any confusion associated with a high level of interaction.Further experiments with the adder will analyze subjects' performance using an idealized strategist for comparison and all subjects will experience various conditions of single and multiple faults.