CRUSADE - Coordination of multiple external Representations in program UnderStAnding and DEbugging

Ben du Boulay Richard Cox Rudi Lutz Pablo Romero

Aims

Summary

The use of multimedia systems and graphical interfaces has made the use of multiple external representations commonplace for computerised learning environments. In the field of computing, novice and professional software development environments often offer multiple views or abstractions of the program code, and so, multiple views to aid programming tasks is an issue for programmers of all levels. However, there is little theoretical knowledge about the way these multiple representations influence the comprehension of computer programs.
In particular, we are interested in how different factors affect the way users co-ordinate representations when performing programming tasks. Some of the factors that will be considered are: the different types of information or perspective afforded by the representations, information modality and individual differences such as cognitive style.
This research will study novice programmers of Java when using software visualisation representations for program comprehension tasks. We are interested in how the co-ordination of these external representations influences 1) the form of their mental representations and 2) their comprehension strategies.
The results of this project will provide an empirical basis for assessing the benefits of multiple representations for teaching programming and will inform the design of effective programming environments.

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Page created and updated by Pablo Romero juanr@cogs.susx.ac.uk © CRUSADE, University of Sussex, 2001.
Last update: 7th February 2002