The effect of semantic complexity on the comprehension of program modules

✍ Scribed by Barbee T. Mynatt

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1984
• Weight: 682 KB
• Volume: 21
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7373
• DOI: 10.1016/s0020-7373(84)80060-7

✦ Synopsis

An important variable affecting the comprehension of programs is their psychological complexity. While some work has been done on surface or low-level semantic features which affect complexity (e.g. variable-naming and indentation), little has been done on the effects of higher-level semantic features. This article presents an experiment in which pairs of program modules were equated on surface complexity and on function, while the complexity of the semantic constructs involved varied. The constructs chosen for study were iteration vs recursion, the type of data structures employed (arrays vs linked lists) and the straightforwardness of the algorithm used. The modules were presented to student programmers to memorize. They were asked for immediate recall, to perform hand execution and for recall again 48 h later. The more semantically complex modules produced significantly worse hand-execution performance and worse delayed-recall. These results are described in relation to the Shneiderman & Mayer syntactic/semantic model of programming behavior.