A system receives a first word on which to perform error correction; identifies combinations in which encoded bits, within the first word, can be inverted; generates candidate words based on the first word and the combinations; decodes the candidate words; determines distances between the decoded words and the first word; selects, as a second word, one of the decoded words associated with a shortest distance; compares the second word to the first word to identify errors within the first word; generates a value to cause a reliability level of the first word to increase when a quantity of the errors is less than a threshold; generates another value to cause a reliability level of the first word to decrease when the quantity of the errors is not less than the threshold; and outputs a third word based on the first word, and the value or the other value.