Problem-Solving Skills of Maintenance Trainees in Diagnosing Faults in Simulated Powerplants

Abstract

Eighty-six maintenance trainees in an FAA certificate program participated in two experimental studies of context-free and context-specific problem solving skills. The context-free training method included two previously reported tasks that involve the troubleshooting of graphically displayed networks. The context-specific task involved automobile and aircraft powerplants simulated on a new computer-based system called FAULT (Framework for Aiding the Understanding of Logical Troubleshooting). Results of the study indicated that it is possible to develop context-free diagnostic skills to be used in context-specific problems and that suboptimal diagnostic performance is largely due to not fully utilizing the information present in the structure of the problem.