MESSAGE-CODE MAPPING AND DECODING,
Abstract
One experiment was conducted to determine the effect of mapping of message symbol on code word (pairing of stimuli and responses). An original message consisting of the first 13 letters of the alphabet was generated by a zero-memory source with a (first-order) redundancy of approximately 14%. In the Normal (or alphabetical) encoding the alphabetical order of the letters corresponded with the numerical order of the code words. In the Reversed code this relationship was switched about, while in the Random code the relationship was determined by chance. A septenary code with digits 1--7 was used throughout. The results showed that the Normal code was decoded most rapidly, the Random code least rapidly, but the differences decreased with practice. Accuracy was consistently high in all three groups. An analysis of the errors that did occur suggested that both stimulus and response confusions were involved; changing the mapping may provide a useful technique for separating these two effects. In general, the results suggest that, in a decoding task, the effects of prior experience become less important with practice. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1964
- Accession Number
- AD0605664
Entities
People
- Bennet B. Murdock Jr.
- Edina C. Oldham
Organizations
- University of Vermont