Spatial skills and navigation of source code
Spatial skills and navigation of source code
复制标题
空间技能和源代码导航
DOI：
10.1145/1268784.1268852
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发表时间：
2007
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
G. Burnett
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
S. Jones;G. Burnett
学习编程是一个困难的过程，在其他科目表现良好的学生可能不会在编程方面产生可比的结果。有证据表明，一些程序员天生就比其他人更熟练，一个重要的个体差异是空间能力。这种认知特征与成功的现实世界导航有关。它对于超文本中的导航也很重要，并且越来越多的人认识到它在程序理解和开发中起着重要作用，源代码的导航被认为与真实的世界中的导航相似。很少有研究已经进行了研究不同的空间技能的程序员的导航模式。在这项研究中，24名学生就读于在英国的一所大学的IT课程的硕士学位给予了代码理解练习。对所花的时间和围绕守则的行动采取了各种措施。那些空间能力高的人在更短的时间内完成了任务，花更少的时间来决定下一步去哪里，并且在班级文件内和班级文件之间跳跃得更频繁。空间能力和编程模块的结果之间也有很强的关系，与非编程模块的关系要弱得多。本文讨论了这些结果的影响有关的可访问性编程学习者的空间能力低。
Learning to program is a difficult process, and students that perform well in other subjects may not produce comparable results in programming. Evidence suggests that some programmers are inherently more skilled than others, and one individual difference that has been shown to be important is spatial ability. This cognitive characteristic is implicated in successful real-world navigation. It is also important for navigating within hypertext, and there is a growing recognition that it has a part to play in program comprehension and development, with navigation of source code considered similar to navigating in the real world. Little research has been carried out to study the navigational patterns of programmers with differing spatial skills. In this study, 24 students enrolled on a Masters in IT course at a University in the UK were given a code comprehension exercise. Various measures were made of time taken and movement around the code. Those with high spatial ability completed the task in shorter time, spent less time searching around deciding where to go next, and jumped more frequently within and between class files. Strong relations were also found between spatial ability and results in programming modules, with much weaker relations with non-programming modules. This paper discusses the implications of these results in relation to the accessibility of programming to learners with low spatial ability.