Visual behavior on problem comprehension among novice programmers with prior knowledge
Document Type
Conference Item
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract
Program comprehension studies investigate the underlying cognitive processes of individuals as they perform programming tasks. Over the years, the studies have begin to incorporate devices such as eye-tracking to empirically analyze reading patterns and visual attention. The outcome of such studies enables improved teaching instructions and learning procedures. This research aims to understand the comprehension strategies and the duration that individuals of varying performance take to attempt the programming questions. An experiment was conducted to collect data from 66 novice programmers' eye movements and their performance on algorithmic problems. The stimuli contained questions that the participants were familiar with having studied the same programs before the experiment was conducted to evaluate whether their prior knowledge influences their comprehension strategies. The results indicate that high performing students visit the problem statement more than the low performing students and yet spent less time on the problem statement as compared to the low performing students. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (https://crativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of KES International.
Keywords
Computer education, Eye-tracking, Novice programmers, Program comprehension, Scanpath analysis
Divisions
ai
Funders
None
Volume
192
Event Title
25th KES International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems, KES 2021
Event Location
Szczecin
Event Dates
8 - 10 September 2021
Event Type
conference