DOT/FAA/AM-96/20

Office ofAviation Medicine

Washington, D.C. 20591

Aviation Topics Speech Acts

Taxonomy (ATSAT) pc User's

Guide Version 2.0

O. Veronika Prinzo

Civil Aeromedical Institute

Federal Aviation Administration

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73125

Otto Maclin

University of Nevada at Reno

Reno, Nevada 89507

August 1996

Final Report

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This document is available to the public

through the National Technical Information

Service, Springfield, Virginia 22161.

©

U.S. Department

of Transportation

Federal Aviation

Administration JlTr*"? ,OTT «. T • VJ)
DISCLAIHEl NOTICE

THIS DOCUMENT IS BEST

QUALITY AVAILABLE. THE COPY

FURNISHED TO DTIC CONTAINED

A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF

PAGES WHICH DO NOT

REPRODUCE LEGIBLY.
NOTICE

This document is disseminated under the sponsorship of

the U.S. Department of Transportation in the interest of

information exchange. The United States Government

assumes no liability for the contents or use thereof.
Technical Report Documentation Page

1. Report No.

DOT/FAA/AM-96/20

2. Government Accession No.

4. Title and Subtitle

Aviation Topics Speech Acts Taxonomy (ATSAT) pc User's Guide Version

2.0

7. Author©

O. Veronika Prinzo, Ph.D.

Otto Maclin, MA.

9. Performing Organization Name and Address

FAA Civil Aeromedical Institute

P.O. Box 25082

Oklahoma City, OK 73125

3. Recipient's Catalog No.

5. Report Date

August 1996

6. Performing Organization Code

8. Performing Organization Report No.

10. Work Unit No. (IRAIS)

11. Contract or Grant No.

DTFA-02-91-C-91089

12. Sponsoring Agency name and Address

Office ofAviation Medicine

Federal Aviation Administration

800 Independence Ave., S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20591

13. Type of Report and Period Covered

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. Supplemental Notes

16. Abstract

ATSATpc is a Windows -based software program designed to facilitate posting of transcribed voice

communications data into a pre-defined electronic spreadsheet. The steps involved in processing air traffic control

communications using ATSATpc coincide with the steps that must be followed when manually encoding

communications according to the procedures outlined in Development ofa Coding Form for Approach Control/Pilot Voice

Communications (Prinzo, Britton, & Hendrix, 1995).

17. Keywords

ATC-Pilot communications

Communication taxonomy

Operational communications

Coding ATC phraseology

19. Security Classif. (of this report)

Unclassified

18.. Distribution Statement

Document is available to the public through the

National Technical Information Service

Springfield, Virginia 22161

20. Security Classif. (of this page)

Unclassified

21. No. of Pages

22

22. Price

Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized
TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION PAGE

1.0 INTRODUCTION l

2.0 PROGRAM INSTALLATION 2

2.1 Program Installation from File Manager 2

2.2 Program Installation from DOS 3

3.0 OPEN FILES •

3

3.1 Selection: New Data Sheet 4

3.2 Selection: Resume Entry 5

4.0 DATAENTRY •

6

4.1 Overview "

4.2 On-line Help Feature 7

4.3 Transmission Identification Menu 7

4.4 Parsing transmissions into communication elements 8

4.5 Speech Act Category Menu 8

4.6 Aviation Topic Menu 9

4.7 Communication Error Menu 10

5.0 DATA AND TEXT OUTPUT FILES H

5.1 .DAT Output Files H

5.2 .TXT Output Files 12

6.0 TROUBLESHOOTING - 12

6.1 ATSATpc DATA Entry 12

6.2 Windows Applications 12

7.0 REFERENCES 3

8.0 APPENDIXA A"l

in
AVIATION TOPICS SPEECH ACTS TAXONOMY

(ATSAT) CODING SOFTWARE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Aviation Topics Speech Acts Taxonomy

(ATSAT) is a tool for categorizing pilot/controller

communications according to their purpose and for

classifying communication errors. ATSAT differs from

other taxonomies in that FAA Order 7110.65 Air

Traffic Control served to guide its development. The

ATSAT and its coding form can be found in Development ofa codingform for approach control/pilot voice

communications (Prinzo, Britton, & Hendrix, 1995)

and in Appendix A in this manual. An indepth discussion of the taxonomy is presented in An analysis of

approach control/pilot voice communications (Prinzo, in

press). We recommend encoders become familiar with

that coding form and taxonomy before using

ATSATpc.

ATSATpc is a software program designed to facilitate posting ofvoice communications data into a predefined electronic spreadsheet. The steps involved in

processing air traffic control communications using

ATSATpc coincide with the steps that must be followed when manually encoding communications according to the procedures outlined by Prinzo and

co-authors (1995).

ATSATpc is a mouse-operated, Windows -based

computer program that consists of 5 main menus:

File Information

Transmission Identification

Speech Act Category

Aviation Topic

Communication Error

File Information Menu - The File Information

menu is used to select the transcription text file for

data coding. The encoder enters a 3-digit facility and

sector code and a 2-digit controller code into the

appropriate box. ATSATpc creates a text file that

contains any key entries and general comments made

by the coder, and a tab-delineated spreadsheet of the

data set for statistical analysis. The original transcription text file is left unchanged by the program.

Transmission Identification Menu - Within the

Transmission Identification menu, each transmission

is tagged with the time, speaker, and receiver. Each

transmission is made up of at least 1 communication

element. A communication element is a meaningful

utterance that conveys a purpose, operation, or action. Communication elements combine to form

messages that are transmitted over radio frequencies.

Within the ATSAT, each communication element is

described in terms of speech act and aviation topic.

The encoder highlights the communication element

in the transmission displayed in the dialogue box that

corresponds with the word "TIME," "SPEAKER," or "RECEIVER" respectively, and then places the cursor on

that word, and double clicks the mouse button. The

highlighted information is copied directly into the

box beneath the word and entered directly into the

appropriate columns on the spreadsheet.

Speech Act Category Menu - The Speech Act

Category menu allows the coder to select and label a

communication element by its purpose, operation, or

action (what). A speech act is a single utterance that

suggests an action. The Speech Act categories are:

"ADDRESS," "COURTESY," "INSTRUCTION," "ADVISORY,"

"REQUEST," and "NON-CODABLE." The ADDRESS is the

"who" of the transmission. It references either an

aircraft or the air traffic control facility position/

sector. In addition to showing a level of respect, a

COURTESY often signals the end of a dialogue between

the air traffic controller and the pilot, in much the

same way that a "good-bye" signals the end of a

telephone conversation. The INSTRUCTION, ADVISORY,

and REQUEST speech act categories represent what the

communication element in the message is about - the

action to be undertaken. They represent the "do

something," "tell something," and "ask something" of

an utterance. A [COMMENTS] button is included so that

personal notes can be recorded during the encoding

process. These comments may serve to explain why a

particular encoding sequence was associated with a

transmission or serve as future memory joggers.
Aviation Topic Menu - The Aviation Topic menu

lists the aviation topics that are members of the

selected speech act category. The aviation topic places

a constraint on the communication element by imposing a restriction on its identified speech act category (who, what). For example, there are only 2 types

of aviation topics listed under the ADDRESS speech act

category. There only can be 1 speaker and 1 receiver of

a transmission1. There are 3 types of aviation topics

listed in the COURTESY speech act category: "THANKS,"

"GREETINGS," and "APOLOGY." The types of aviation

topics listed in the INSTRUCTION, ADVISORY, and REQUEST

speech act categories are not exhaustive, but represent

common messages that we heard from field tapes.

Communication Error Menu - The Communication Error menu is used by the encoder to identify and

label non-standard communications according to the

type of error present in the communication element.

There are 2 categories of communication error: message content and delivery technique. Message content

errors pertain to non-standard phraseology usage;

delivery technique errors refer to stammers, stutters,

or misspoken words. ATSATpc assigns a numerical

code to each identified communication error and

places that code into the encoder determined speech

act and aviation topic columns in the electronic spreadsheet. The types of message content errors and their

corresponding numerical codes are "GROUPED" (1),

"SEQUENTIAL" (6), "OMISSION" (2), "SUBSTITUTION" (7),

"TRANSPOSITION" (3), "EXCESSIVE VERBIAGE" (8), and

"PARTIAL READBACK" (5). "DYSFLUENCY" (4) and

"MISARTICULATION" (9) are delivery technique errors.

2.0 PROGRAM INSTALLATION

ATSATpc is a mouse-operated, Windows -based

software program written in Visual Basic 3.0. Transcripts created from Microsoft Word 2.0 or Write

are easily processed by ATSATpc. ATSATpc only

recognizes and processes transcripts that contain a

.CMM extension. Data entries are entered into the

tab-delineated spreadsheet that can be accessed by

EXCEL or SPSS for subsequent analysis. It is

assumed that the user has a minimal familiarity with

personal computers and Microsoft Windows software applications. Although the ATSATpc program

can operate from drive a, the use of a hard drive

improves the performance ofthe program and ensures

that sufficient memory and disk space are available to

process, create, and store files. We strongly recommend that you install ATSATpc onto the c drive of

your computer.

The ATSATpc diskette contains 3 files:

ATSAT.EXE, VB R UN3 0 0. D LL1, and

PRACTICE.CMM. Theses files can be copied from

the ATSATpc diskette either through File Manager or

from DOS to the c drive.

2.1 Program Installationfrom FileManager. Once

your pc is on3, the DOS prompt, "c:\>," should be

displayed on the video monitor. At the DOS prompt,

type "WIN" and press the [Return] button.

c:\> WIN [Return]

This will activate the Windows program. If the

Windows program fails to open, consult your technician or user's manual. From File Manager, place the

mouse pointer on the word File and press the mouse

button once. At the next menu, place the mouse

pointer on the phrase "Create Directory..." and press

the mouse button once. In the rectangle, type "ATSAT"

as the name for the directory into which the 3 files will

be placed, position the mouse pointer on the [OK]

button and press the mouse button once.

Insert the 5Vi" ATSATpc diskette into drive a.

Place the mouse pointer on the drawing corresponding to drive a. A list of files will appear. Place the

mouse pointer on ATSAT.EXE and press the mouse

button once. The name of the file should be highlighted. Then, under File Manager place the mouse

'In most instances air traffic control (ATC) communications take place between 1 controller and 1 aircraft. An exception would be when

ATC is broadcasting general information such as an Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) update (e.g., "Attention all aircraft,

Charlie now current").

2The VBRUN300.DLL is a Visual Basic file required for ATSAT.EXE to run.

3

It is assumed that the a drive is used to copy diskettes and the c drive is the hard drive.
pointer on File and press the mouse button once,

select Copy, and press the mouse button once. In the

[copy from] rectangle you should see the name ofthe

file that you highlighted. Directly beneath it is another rectangle [copy to]. In that rectangle type:

c:\ATSAT\ATSAT.EXE

Place the mouse pointer on the [OK] button and

press the mouse button once. Repeat these steps to

copy the next file from drive a to drive c.

l.lProgram Installationfrom DOS. Once your pc

is on4, the DOS prompt, "c:\>," should be displayed

on the video monitor. First create a working directory

entitled "ATSAT" and then copy the 3 files into it. At

the DOS prompt type:

c:\> MKDIR ATSAT [Return]

At c:\ you are going to change directories and then

copy the 3 files into the new ATSAT directory by

typing:

c:\> CD ATSAT [Return]

c:\> COPYA:\ *.* C:\*.* [Return]

To determine ifthe files were copied, type the word

"DIR" at the c:\ATSAT prompt.

c:\ATSAT> DIR [Return]

The files in the ATSAT directory are listed:

ATSAT.EXE

PRACTICE.CMM

VBRUN300.DLL

Once the files are placed into the ATSAT directory go

through the normal proceduresto startwindows. ATSAT

does not start windows when activated from DOS.

3.0. OPEN FILES

This program must be operated within the Windows environment. Through File Manager, change

to the ATSAT directory by placing the mouse pointer

on the file folder named ATSAT, and then very

quickly press the mouse button twice. This will open

the file folder to reveal the 3 files that you copied from

the ATSATpc diskette. To execute the ATSATpc

program, simply place the mouse pointer over the

ATSAT.EXE file name and then quickly press the

mouse button twice.

As a safeguard, transcript files are opened in

ATSATpc as read only files. You will never be able to

directly modify these .CMM files through ATSATpc.

However; comments, segmentation marks, error codes,

and/or any other entries made in the dialog box will be

written to TXT files. DAT files will store the field and

numerical codes associated with each button entry

and commented transmissions will be referenced by

their corresponding line number.

When ATSATpc first opens, you can chose to

begin a new coding form, resume entering data into an

existing data sheet, or quit. Simply place the mouse

pointer on the button that corresponds to your decision.

Figure 1. Welcome Screen.

[NEW DATA SHEET]: This selection will create

a .TXT and .DATfile for a new transcription file that

has the required .CMM extension. Keep in mind that

facility, traffic, or controller codes are up to you to

define. Frustration can be reduced by using the same

name for all related files.

[RESUME ENTRY]: This selection will retrieve a

previously encoded file. The [RESUME ENTRY] button is

used to access existing TXT and .DAT files. If a

transcript was partially encoded and you now wish to

complete that file, press the [RESUME ENTRY] button.

[QUIT ATSAT]: This selection is essentially a

Close file command. It will cease ATSAT operation,

close the program, and exit to the previous Windows application.

"It is assumed that the a drive is used to copy diskettes and the c drive is the hard drive.

3
IETO AISAT.

-

I

^EVMlASHJCf; I RESUME ENTRY I QUI1 ATUI II

Figure 2. Creating a new data file.

3.1 SELECTION: [NEW DATA SHEET] . ATSATpc

will present a series ofdecision screens from which the

program will retrieve the transcript .CMM file to

encode and create output files with .DAT and .TXT

extensions (see Figure 2). The hard drive file names

with .CMM extensions are displayed in the CMM file

directory (see Figure 3). If.CMM files were stored on

any ofthe other drives available on the pc, you could

retrieve those files by placing the mouse pointer on the

letter corresponding to that drive and pressing the

mouse button. Throughout the program, you will

make what are commonly referred to as "point and

click" decisions.

To retrieve PRACTICE.CMM, place the mouse

pointer on the file name in the 'Files:' display and then

press the mouse button. The name of the file will

appear in the 'Filename' display. Place the mouse

pointer on the [OK] and depress the mouse button.

Since the [OK] rectangle is presented with a thicker

border, the file will be opened and the next screen

FILE INFORMATION

Enter the 3 digit facility code:

Eiotttf the 3-diqit sector cutin:

1—j .CMM FILE DIRECTORY I

-

J'.CMM

E\

Files: Directories:

PRACTICE.CMM [. ]

[atsat]

l-a-1

l-b-J M

[d]

[h-l

^B[-m-]

+

Ok | H Cancel

Figure 3. .CMM file directory.

displayed as the default. If you want to cancel your

decision, simply place the mouse pointer on the [CANCEL] button and click.

File Information Menu.Once the [NEW DATA SHEET]

button is pressed, ATSATpc will prompt you for

information to create the .DAT and .TXT output files

(see Figure 4). You must determine the name of the

communication file to open and specify the facility,

sector, and controller codes.

3-DIGIT FACILITY CODE: Enter the name of

the facility (e.g., terminal radar approach control

facility names may be OKC, LAX, ORD, etc., and en

route facility names may be ZTL, ZKC, etc.) or the 3-

letter identifier for that airport, as specified in the

most recent publication of the FAA 73506, Location

Identifiers.

3-DIGIT SECTOR CODE: This is the air traffic

sector code. For example, heavy traffic communications from a high west sector might be coded as

HHW.

Figure 4. Naming your files. Figure 5. Verifying file names.
2-DIGIT CONTROLLER CODE: Enter the number assigned to the person or file you wish to process. For

example, a series of field tapes may be identified as 01 for tape 1, 02 for tape 2, and so on.

After the [ENTER] button is pressed, a file verify screen appears (see Figure 5).

If the entries are correct, place the mouse pointer on the [ENTER] button and click; otherwise, select the

[CANCEL] button and start over. As the encoder, you segment and label communications according to speech act

and aviation topic decisions. For more information on how to encode speech acts, go to Chapter 4, Data Entry.

ATSAT CODING FORM pc

WELCOME TO A.T.SAT.

HEW DATA SHEET I HlSUMf FNIHY. L OUIT ATSAT J

1 «=»| Resume Entry

1 CMM Impul File to Res ime Entry:

1 H | H Change File ^H

I .TXT Output File to Resume Entry: 1

H ^H Change File ^H

j .DAT Output File to Resume Entry:

H ^H Change File ^H

H 1 H Open Files ^H

+

1

| ENTER | ^

J

Figure 6. Entering data to an existing file. Figure 7. Selecting existing files to open.

3.2 SELECTION: [RESUME ENTRY]. TO reducefrustration, it is advised thatyou write down the number of

the last line previously encoded into A TSATpc and have that line number available when being a new session.

To add more lines of data for analysis, select the [RESUME ENTRY] button and click (see Figure 6). At the next

screen, you must enter your choices for which .CMM, .TXT, and .DAT files to open (see Figure 7).

To open an existing .CMM transcript file, place the mouse pointer on the top [Change File] button and click.

The .CMM file directory will appear (see Figure 8). Move the mouse pointer to the .CMM file you want to open

and click. The name ofthe file will become highlighted. To open that file, place the mouse pointer on the [OK]

button and click again (see Figure 9).

H ,CMM FILE DIRECTORY |

Filename: |gjj^|£j

Hc:\ atsat H

Files: Directories:

PRACTICE.CMM 1-1

[-a]

[b]

[C-]

[d]

[h]

[m] 1

^1 H Cancel 9

Figure 8. List of existing .CMM files. Figure 9. Selecting a .CMM file to open.
Use the same procedure to open the .TXT and

.DAT files that you want data entries written to (see

Figure 10). To open an existing .TXT file, place the

pointer on the middle [Change File] button and click.

The name of the file should appear in the ".TXT

Output File to Resume Entry:" display. Select [OK]

and click. Select the .DAT file to open by placing the

pointer on the bottom [Change File] button and

click. The name ofthe file should appear in the ".DAT

Output File to Resume Entry:" display. Select [OK]

and click.

To resume entry, type in the line number that you

want to begin encoding, then select the [Open Files]

button, and click (see Figures 11 & 12). The transmission corresponding to thatline number should appear

in the dialogue box beneath the query, "Is this the

transmission line to begin on?" Ifyou are not satisfied

with the entry, simply type in a different line number

and click on the [Open Files] button. When satisfied,

press the [ENTER] button. At this point, you will begin

segmenting and labeling communications according

to speech act and aviation topic.

4.0 DATA ENTRY

4.1 Overview. To classify and encode communication elements that comprise a transmission into speech

acts and aviation topics, ATSATpc will present a

series of menus from which you will make selections

and answer questions. Once a communication element is associated with a speech act and aviation

topic, you must determine whether a communication

error is present within that element or not. If no errors

are present, you can elect to move to the next speech

act, next transmission, or quit. If you determine that

an error is present, then a menu of communication

errors is presented.

Before quitting ATSATpc, it is strongly recommended that you write down the ending line number

for future reference. This information is required to

resume data encodinginto existing .DATand. TXTfiles.

•=1 Resume Entry

PRACTICE.CMM J Change File J

^H Change File ^H

H Open Fite* ^H

ENTER m CANCEL ^^^^^^^^^^^|

Figure 10. Selecting a TXT file to open.

Figure 11. Selecting the transmission

to encode.

Resume Entrv

.CMM Imput File to Resume Enhv:

Figure 12. Begin encoding.
4.2 On-line Help Feature. Definitions from Ap- name of the speech act, aviation topic, or communipendices B and C of the ATSAT coding form have cation error; keep the mouse button depressed to

been integrated into ATSATpc (Prinzo et al., 1995). display the definition while reading, or it will disapTo access a definition, place the mouse pointer on the pear from the screen (see Figure 13).

Figure 13. On-line help feature.

4.3 Transmission Identification Menu. Once the

.CMM file is open, ATSATpc will display the number

"1" in the line number box. Line number 1 is the first

line on the page not the first transmission. Keep

selecting the [NEXT TRANS.] button until the first

transmission appears in the dialogue box. Presented

beneath the dialogue box are 3 empty data entry

boxes. You can enter the time, speaker, and receiver of

the transmission manually or use the automatic data

entry feature of ATSATpc. To manually enter the

time, speaker, and receiver, place the mouse pointer

on the appropriate box, click, and atthe cursor prompt,

keyboard in the desired information.

To automatically enter the time, speaker, or receiver information, simply highlight only 1 piece of

information, place the mouse pointer on the word

label above its data entry box, and click (see Figure

14). For example, place the mouse pointer over the

receiver name displayed in the dialogue box, press and

hold the mouse button down while moving the mouse

pointer from left to right until the entire name is

"highlighted," and then release the button. Move the

mouse pointer to the word label "RECEIVER" and click

TRANSMISSION

TIME: SPEAKER:

NEXT TRANS. CONTINUE

Figure 14. Entering time, speaker, and

receiver information.

the mouse button. The receiver name should appear

in the receiver data entry box. Once the time, speaker,

and receiver ofthe transmission are identified, selectthe

[CONTINUE] button to parse transmissions into communication elements.
4.4 Parsing transmissions into communication

elements. Within the dialogue box (see Figure 15),

insert slashes ("/") in the transmission to separate

communication elements. For example, the transmission "American twelve sixty three fly heading two five

zero reduce speed to one nine zero," has been parsed into

3 communication elements. Once parsed, each communication element is associated with a speech act category.

4.5 Speech Act Category Menu. Once parsed,

ATSATpc will enable you to assign each communication element to 1 ofthe 7 speech act categories, move

to the next transmission, redo the encoding process

for the current transmission, or quit (see Figure 16).

SELECTION: [ASSIGN SPEECH ACT CATEGORY]. At

this stage of the encoding process, you select the

speech act category that best represents the purpose of

the communication element from the following

choices: "ADDRESS," "COURTESY," "INSTRUCTION," "COMMENTS," "ADVISORY," "REQUEST," and "NON-CODABLE."

For example, the first communication element in the

transmission "American twelve sixty three fly heading

two five zero reduce speed to one nine zero," is

American twelve sixty three. You point to and click on

the [ADDRESS] button and the entry is encoded into the

"Address/Addressee" column in the ATSAT coding

form. ATSATpc immediately presents the aviation

topics associated with the selected speech act.

SELECTION: [NEXT TRANS.]. Selecting [NEXT

TRANS.] results in ATSATpc advancing to the next

transmission. The value in the LINE NO. box increases by

1 and the next transmission in the .CMM file appears

in the dialogue box.

SELECTION: [QUIT]. Selecting [QUIT ATSAT] results in ATSATpc returning to the Welcome to

AT.S.A.T. menu.

SELECTION: [COMMENTS]. From the COMMENTS

menu, you can elect to make comments, clear comments, move to the next speech act, re-do the entry, or

re-do the transmission. Any comments or personal

notes are appended to and stored with the transmission in the .TXT file. This information may be useful

to other encoders, serve as a memory jog about why a

communication element was encoded in a particular

fashion, and so on (see Figure 17).

00:15 ATC American twelve sixty three /fly heading two

five zero / reduce speed to one nine zero /

ADDRESS

COURTESY

INSTRUCTION

COMMENTS

REDO-LINE

ADVISORY

REQUEST

NON-CODABLE

NEXT TRANS.

QUIT ATSAT

Figure 15. Transmission parsed into

communication elements.

00:15 ATC American twelve sixty three /fly heading two

five zero / reduce speed to one nine zero /

ADDRESS

COURTESY

INSTRUCTION

COMMENTS

---

\ :

^" N

^

I'"--!

^ r \

REDO-LINE

ADVISORY

REQUEST

NON-CODABLE

NEXT TRANS.

QUIT ATSAT

Figure 16. Speech Act Category menu.
SELECTION: [CLEAR COMMENTS]. YOU must first

point to and click on the [CLEAR COMMENTS] button to

remove any text in the comments display box before

making any new keyboard entries. Comments are

associated with the entire transmission and not with a

specific speech act, aviation topic, or communication

error. You are not limited in the amount ofinformation that can be typed in the comments display box.

When finished, pointto and click on the [NEXT SPEECH

ACT] button to resume encoding the transmission

displayed in the dialogue box. The comments will be

appended to that transmission in the TXT output file

and a numerical code will be entered into the "Comments" column in the .DAT output file.

SELECTION: [NEXT SPEECH ACT] . Pointing to and

clicking on the [NEXT SPEECH ACT] button will return

you to the Speech Act menu without changing the

counter in the "TOPIC NO." display box.

SELECTION: [RE-DO ENTRY] . To correct a mistake,

pointing to and clicking on the [RE-DO ENTRY] button

will remove the entered values for the current aviation

topic only. Previously encoded speech acts in the presented transmission will not be affected by this action.

SELECTION: [RE-DO LINE]. If you wish to recode

the current transmission from the beginning, pointing to and clicking on the [RE-DO LINE] button will

remove the entered values for all of the communication elements in that transmission. This action will

take you back to the Transmission Identification

menu, at which time you must re-enter the time,

speaker, and receiver information, re-parse the transmission, and so on.

COMMENTS

I

Text From Transcripts:

00:15 ATC American twelve sixty three /fly heading two

five zero / reduce speed to one nine zero /

Type Comments Here:

I note: there is one error involving speed reduction

CLEAR COMMENT

RE-DO ENTRY

NEXT SPEECH ACT

RE-DO LINE

Figure 17. Typing in comments.

00:15 ATC American twelve sixty three fly heading two

five zero reduce speed to one nine zero

SPEAKER

RE-DO ENTRY

RECEIVER

RE-DO LINE

Figure 18. Selecting aviation topic.

4.6 Aviation Topic Menu. From the Aviation

Topic menu, you can select to encode the aviation

topic, re-do the entry, or re-do the line. After the

aviation topic is assigned to a communication element,

you must determine the accuracy ofthe communication

element. Ifno communication error is present, ATSATpc

returns to the Speech Act Category menu; otherwise the

Communication Error menu appears.

SELECTION: [ASSIGN AVIATION TOPIC]. In the

example, "American twelve sixty three fly heading two

five zero reduce speed to one nine zero," American

twelve sixty three was associated with the ADDRESS

speech act (see Figure 16). The ADDRESS aviation topic

menu will appear automatically and you must select

either "SPEAKER" or "RECEIVER" as the corresponding

aviation topic (see Figure 18).

In the current example, you would point to and

click on the [RECEIVER] button. Once a selection is

made, ATSATpc presents the message "Are There Any

Errors?" (see Figure 19). You would point to and click

on either the [YES] or [NO] button. Ifthe communication element is in accordance with the FAA Order

7110.65, point to and click on the [NO] button and

ATSATpc will return you to the Speech Act Category

menu. Otherwise, you should select the [YES] button

to activate the Communication Error menu.
SELECTION: [RE-DO ENTRY]. TO correct a mistake, pointing to and clicking on the [RE-DO ENTRY]

button will remove the entered values for the current

aviation topic. Previously encoded speech acts in the

presented transmission will not be affected by this

action.

SELECTION: [RE-DO LINE]. If you wish to recode

the current transmission from the beginning, pointing to and clicking on the [RE-DO LINE] button will

remove the entered values for all of the communication elements in that transmission. This action will

take you back to the Transmission Identification

menu, at which time you must re-enter the time,

speaker, and receiver information, re-parse the transmission, and so on.

4.7 Communication Error Menu. From the Communication Error menu (see Figure 20), you can enter

up to 3 communication errors per aviation topic,

move to the next speech act, re-do the current entry,

or re-do the entire transmission. ATSATpc provides

definitions for each type of message content and

delivery technique error. This on-line help feature is

accessed by placing the mouse pointer on the name of

the communication error and depressing the mouse

button. Once the mouse button is released, the definition disappears from the computer screen.

SELECTION: [ASSIGN A COMMUNICATION ERROR

CODE] . There are 9 communication errors listed in the

Communication Error menu. Each communication

error has a numerical value associated with it, which

will be displayed in the ERROR # data entry box if the

button next to the name of the communication error

type is depressed. The numerical codes are: "GROUPED"

(1), "OMISSION" (2), "TRANSPOSITION" (3), "DYSFLUENCY"

(4), "PARTIAL READBACK" (5), "SEQUENTIAL" (6), "SUBSTITUTION" (7), "EXCESSIVE VERBIAGE" (8), and

"MISARTICULATION" (9). These numerical codes will be

placed into their corresponding column fields in the

electronic spreadsheet.

To enter communication error codes, place the

mouse pointer on the button adjacent to the name of

the communication error and depress the mouse button. The communication error code first entered will

be displayed in the ERROR #1 data entry box, the

TRANSP

DYSFLUENCY

PART. READBACK

RE DO ENTRY

MISARTICULATION

NEXT SPEECH ACT

RE-DO LINE

Figure 19. Coding errors.

GROUPED

OMISSION

TRANSPOSITION

DYSFLUENCY

PART. READBACK

RE-DO ENTRY

SEQUENTIAL

SUBSTITUTION

EXCESS VERBG.

MISARTICULATION

NEXT SPEECH ACT

RE-DO LINE

Figure 20. Communication Error

Category menu.

communication error code entered next will be displayed in the ERROR #2, data entry box, etc. The order

in which communication errors are entered is arbitrarily determined.

There is 1 communication error present in the

third communication element in the transmission,

"American twelve sixty three fly heading two five zero

10
reduce speed to one nine zero." The INSTRUCTION

speech act involved a SPEED aviation topic that was

evaluated to contain a SUBSTITUTION (7) error5.

SELECTION: [NEXT SPEECH ACT]. Once the first

communication element has speech act, aviation topic,

and communication error codes assigned to it, pointing to and clicking on the [NEXT SPEECH ACT] button

opens the Speech Act menu and advances the counter

in the TOPIC NO. display box by 1.

SELECTION: [RE-DO ENTRY]. To correct a mistake, pointing to and clicking on the [RE-DO ENTRY]

button will remove all communication error codes

assigned to the current aviation topic. Previously

encoded speech acts, aviation topics, and communication error codes will not be affected by this action.

SELECTION: [RE-DO LINE]. If you wish to recode

the current transmission from the beginning, pointing to and clicking on the [RE-DO LINE] button will

remove the entered values for all ofthe communication

elements in that transmission. This action will take you

back to the Transmission Identification menu at which

time you will re-enter the time, speaker, and receiver

information, re-parse the transmission, and so on.

5.0 DATA AND TEXT OUTPUT FILES

5.1 .DAT Output Files. ATSATpc writes to a preformatted spreadsheet that exemplifies the ATSAT coding form (Prinzo et al., 1995). Each speech act and aviation

topic button entry is associated to a specific column field in

that electronic spreadsheet (see Figures 21-23).

For example, information provided by the encoder

in the Transmission Information menu for the transmission, "American twelve sixty three fly heading two

five zero reduce speed to one nine zero," will be

displayed in the columns labeled "time," "speaker,"

"receiver," and "line_no." of the spreadsheet (see

Figure 21).

When the [INSTRUCTION] and [SPEED] buttons were

clicked on, ATSATpc moved to the "i_speed" column. In the present example, the communication

element, " ...reduce speed to one nine zero" was the

third element in the transmission and a "3" was posted

in the "i_speed" column. That number represents the

»1 m.lvfl\flbocw01 dnl 1111

l~j HE ij

lime linn IIU linr no spuskrr irvrwtt »p id i-p »jl I.I?

1 D0:I5 3.00 2.00 ATC AAL1263 .00 .00 .00

ill 00:17 3.00 3.00 ML1263 ATC 1.00 .00 .00

i 00:19 2.00 4.00 ATC AAL1263 .00 .00 .00

li

is H:|fl

Figure 21. DAT file.

»\ mfrbVri>i.sv'l)l.ildt iji

i:swal»' M *

i nil r? i >lt * i i|icril l_".pe»!dt 1. U\ltUli? l_?|*Ged3 l_appch i_appcfcM

1 .00 .00 3.00 7.00 .00 .00 .00 Jill

? .00 .00 3.00 2.00 .00 .00 .00 I

1 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 l|

I

I

I

Ss A

Figure 22. .DAT file.

-1 nu\v4itebcxy2Dl.dat I I]

1: !.p<:Akrr ^Q m

.Irliv? tltlivf ulhel olhe*1 liiiH! olhetJ ciiimiiriil!

1 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 2.00

II .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00

1 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00

*1 *M yy$jj&gBil^||§|jjjS*lf|l

Figure 23. .DAT file.

order in which that communication element was

delivered. Since the [YES] button was selected in response to the question "Are There Any Errors?," the

ATSATpc software advanced to the column labeled

5The speaker substituted the word "nine" for "niner" as part of the instruction.

11
00:15 ATC AMERICAN TWELVE SIXTY THREE/ FLY HEADING TWO FIVE

ZERO / REDUCE SPEED TO ONE NINE ZERO 1 COMMUNICATION

ERROR ON THE SPEED REDUCTION

00:17 AAL1263 AMERICAN TWELVE SIXTY THREE /{AHHH} HEADING

TWO NINER ZERO/ REDUCING TO ONE NINER ZERO

00:19 ATC AMERICAN TWELVE SIXTY {STAMMERS} SIXTY THREE/

EVERYTHING RIGHT EXCEPT THE HEADING FLY HEADING ZERO NINER

ZERO

Figure 24. Text output file produced by the ATSATpc software.

"i_speedl". When the encoder classified "... reduce

speed to one nine zero" as a substitution error, the

numerical code "7" was posted in that field (see Figure 22).

Since the [COMMENTS] button was selected, the

number "2" appears in the "Comments" column as an

indicator to the analyst, to read the comments from

the .TXT file (see Figure 23).

5.2 .TXT Output Files. The ATSATpc software

produces a .TXT output file that contains all keyboard entries made in the transmission and/or comments dialogue box (see Figure 24). The original

transmission input file will not be altered in any way.

ATSATpc will include the transmission number to

the front end of each encoded transmission and will

append any comments to the end of the original

transmission. Only those which have been encoded

will be included in a .TXT output file.

6.0 TROUBLESHOOTING

6.1 ATSATpc Data Entry

Problem: Text is omittedfrom the .DAT spreadsheet. When entering information into the Transmission Identification menu, each transmission is tagged

with the time, speaker, and receiver. If a tab or space

character is highlighted along with the time, speaker,

or receiver name and placed into the data entry box,

then some of the columns in the .DAT spreadsheet

may contain only a "." or "|" in them.

If the name of the speaker or receiver is entered

manually and either name exceeds 9 characters, the

spreadsheet program may display an error code and, in

many cases, may omit or delete the name of the

speaker or receiver from the spreadsheet.

Solution: Make sure that addresses do not exceed

9 characters. The 9 character limitation does include

any hidden characters, such as tabs or spaces.

The spreadsheet data has shifted and/or some

information is lost: Ifyou use the highlight and click

method when entering information into the Transmission Identification menu, and either tabs and \ or

spaces were inadvertently included on either side ofthe

time, speaker, or receiver then either an error is displayed, that data block is omitted, orsome datawillshift.

Solution: Only enter applicable text and data. Do

not enter any spaces or tabs. Ifspreadsheet data have

shifted, that information must be re-entered into the

ATSAT program.

6.2 Windows Applications

The transcript is complete, but ATSAT alerts

you that the end ofthe .CMM file has been reached.

Although no encoding has been performed on a.CMM

file, ATSATpc notifies the encoder that the end ofthe

document has been reached. This is a good indicator

that the proper Association and/or Conversion necessary for ATSATpc to "recognize" the information in

the .CMM file has not yet been made.

12
Solution: Enter the File Manager and associate

your .CMM files with your current version ofMicrosoft

Word for Windows text editor. If a file conversion

needs to be performed, Windows will display a

"Convert From" dialogue box. Consult your

Windows users guide for more information. Once

files have been associated/converted, restart the

ATSATpc program.

The "OOPS RESTART ATSAT" has appeared

during data encoding. This error appears when you

click the mouse outside of the menus and buttons

provided. In preliminary tests, no data were lost when

this occurred; however, it is recommended that mouse

actions be limited to those required for encoding data.

The computer has locked up while searching for

files. It is possible to have your computer enter into a

continuous loop while it is searching for files through

ATSATpc. When searching for a specific .CMM file

you may use the [..] to back up through directories.

For example, if you are going to encode a new

.CMM file, ATSATpc will list the directory it has

currently accessed, e.g., c:\atsat\subinfo\subs. Ifyou

double click [..] this action will back up the current

directory to c:\atsat\subinfo. Another double click

[..] will produce c:\atsat, and so on until only c:\ is

displayed. If the current directory is c:\ and yet

another double click is made [..], the program produces an argument within itself that will not let the

user escape. Through testing, the only solution to this

problem is to reboot your computer system. Any

application that has been running in the background,

that has not been saved, will be lost.

7.0 REFERENCES

Airman's Information Manual, Official Guide to Basic

Flight Information and ATC Procedures. (1994).

Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

FAA Order7110.65GAir Traffic Control (March, 1992).

Washington, DC: Air Traffic Rules and Procedures Service.

Prinzo, O.V., Britton, T.W., & Hendrix, A. (1995).

Development ofa codingformfor approach control/

pilot voice communications. Washington, DC: FAA

Office ofAviation Medicine Report, DOT/FAA/

AM-95/15.

Prinzo, O.V. (in press). An analysis ofapproach control/

pilot voice communications. Washington, DC: FAA

Office ofAviation Medicine Report, DOT/FAA/

AM.

13
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