Empirical Studies of Programmers

Preface  vii 

1. Programming and Algebra Word Problems: A Failure to Transfer  1
Gary M. Olson, Richard Catrambone, and Elliot Soloway

2. Understanding Procedures as Objects   14
Michael Eisenberg, Mitchel Resnick, and Franklyn Turbak

3. Mental Representations of Programs for Student and Professional Programmers   33
Robert W. Holt, Deborah A. Boehm-Davis, and Alan C. Shultz

4. Communication Breakdowns and Boundary Spanning Activities on Large Programming Projects   47
Herb Krasner, Bill Curtis, and Neil Iscoe

5. Breakdowns and Processes During the Early Activities of Software Design by Professionals   65
Raymonde Guindon, Herb Krasner, and Bill Curtis

6. A Methodology for Studying Software Design Teams: An Investigation of Conflict Behaviors in the Requirements Definition Phase   83
Joyce J. Elam, Diane B. Walz, Herb Krasner, and Bill Curtis

7. Comprehension Strategies in Programming   100
Nancy Pennington

8. Graphical vs. Textual Representation: An Empirical Study of Novices' Program Comprehension  114
Nancy Cunniff and Robert P. Taylor

9. Parsing and Gnisrap*: A Model of Device Use   132
T. R. G. Green, R. K. E. Bellamy, and M. Parker

10. Improving Children's Debugging Skills   147
Sharon McCoy Carver and Sally Clarke Risinger

11. An Analysis of the On-Line Debugging Process   172
Murthi Nanja and Curtis R. Cook

12. Change-Episodes in Coding: When and How Do Programmers Change Their Code?   185
Wayne D. Gray and John R. Anderson

13. Advancing the Study of Programming with Computer-Aided Protocol Analysis   198
Carolanne Fisher

14. Strategies in Programming Programmable Controllers: A Field Study on a Professional Programmer  217
Willemien Visser

15. A Cognitive Analysis of a Code Inspection   231
Stanley Letovsky, Jeannine Pinto, Robin Lampert, and Elliot Soloway

16. Can Principles of Cognition Lower the Barriers to Programming?   248
Clayton Lewis and Gary Olson