Title :
Toward using alpha and theta brain waves to quantify programmer expertise
Author :
Crk, Igor ; Kluthe, Timothy
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Southern Illinois Univ. Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, USA
Abstract :
Empirical studies of programming language learnability and usability have thus far depended on indirect measures of human cognitive performance, attempting to capture what is at its essence a purely cognitive exercise through various indicators of comprehension, such as the correctness of coding tasks or the time spent working out the meaning of code and producing acceptable solutions. Understanding program comprehension is essential to understanding the inherent complexity of programming languages, and ultimately, having a measure of mental effort based on direct observation of the brain at work will illuminate the nature of the work of programming. We provide evidence of direct observation of the cognitive effort associated with programming tasks, through a carefully constructed empirical study using a cross-section of undergraduate computer science students and an inexpensive, off-the-shelf brain-computer interface device. This study presents a link between expertise and programming language comprehension, draws conclusions about the observed indicators of cognitive effort using recent cognitive theories, and proposes directions for future work that is now possible.
Keywords :
brain-computer interfaces; cognition; electroencephalography; medical signal processing; programming languages; acceptable solutions; alpha brain waves; code meaning; coding tasks; cognitive effort; cognitive theories; cross-section; direct observation; human cognitive performance; indirect measures; mental effort; off-the-shelf brain-computer interface device; program comprehension; programmer expertise; programming language comprehension; programming language learnability; programming language usability; programming tasks; purely cognitive exercise; theta brain waves; undergraduate computer science students; Accuracy; Atmospheric measurements; Electrodes; Electroencephalography; Particle measurements; Programming;
Conference_Titel :
Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2014 36th Annual International Conference of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
Chicago, IL
DOI :
10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944840