Here is a version that is certainly shorter, and produces the same result, but I doubt it is any more efficient. The benefit I see to this version is that you can change the pattern more easily, and you don't have quite the same amount of redundant checks for whether the current value is 1.
pattern = [-1 4 -2 -3];
i = 1;
v = 15;
while v ~= 1
array(i) = v;
v = v + pattern(mod(i-1,numel(pattern))+1);
i = i + 1;
end
array(i) = v;
disp(array)
