  [Context and motivation] Trace matrices are lynch pins for the development of
mission- and safety-critical software systems and are useful for all software
systems, yet automated methods for recovering trace links are far from perfect.
This limitation makes the job of human analysts who must vet recovered trace
links more difficult. [Question/Problem] Earlier studies suggested that certain
analyst behaviors when performing trace recovery tasks lead to decreased
accuracy of recovered trace relationships. We propose a three-step experimental
study to: (a) determine if there really are behaviors that lead to errors of
judgment for analysts, (b) enhance the requirements tracing software to curtail
such behaviors, and (c) determine if curtailing such behaviors results in
increased accuracy. [Principal ideas/results] We report on a preliminary study
we undertook in which we modified the user interface of RETRO.NET to curtail
two behaviors indicated by the earlier work. We report on observed results.
[Contributions] We describe and discuss a major study of potentially unwanted
analyst behaviors and present results of a preliminary study toward determining
if curbing these behaviors with enhancements to tracing software leads to fewer
human errors.
