Procedure

This study consisted of two phases; the details of each phase are listed separately blow. Unfortunately, because the participants did not live within meeting distance of the principal investigator, all testing and communication was done via either telephone or electronic correspondence. Oaths were signed by each participant to deter from any form of deviation from instruction in either part of the study.

Part I: Mental Model

Subjects were given a blank Excel sheet with 40 highlighted cells. They were instructed to explain basic firefighting in terms 40 words or short phrases (no more than four letters in length) and to enter each term into each cell. They were allowed to revise their terms once entered, but only had 15 minutes to complete the entire task. Upon completion of the allotted time, the subjects were given a phone call and told to immediately stop, save their work, and e-mail the spreadsheet to the principal investigator. They were also asked whether or not they revised any of their original entries.