Effects of experience and comprehension on reading time and memory for computer programs

✍ Scribed by Albert L. Schmidt

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1986
• Weight: 569 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7373
• DOI: 10.1016/s0020-7373(86)80068-2

✦ Synopsis

The present study investigated the effects of experience and comprehension on reading time, recall and recognition memory for computer programs. Twenty computer science students, who varied along the dimension of experience, were presented with two lists of PL/I computer programming statements. List 1 was a meaningful program and contained programming constructs which all the programmers had used. List 2 was a random list of PL/I statements. Each list was presented four times. More-experienced programmers read the meaningful program faster than less-experienced programmers. Comprehension was positively correlated with recall of the meaningful program. Results from recognition tests revealed a strong positive correlation between comprehension and recognition of meaningful units. Neither experience nor comprehension were related to performance with random information. These results are discussed in terms of elaboration, the concept of knowledge compilation and the contribution of experience and comprehension to performance.