Collaborative Research: Program Visualization: Using Perceptual and Cognitive Concepts to Quantify Quality, Support Instruction, and Improve Interactions

许多程序员、教师和编程专业的学生都有一种强烈的直觉，认为可视化对于传递有关程序状态和行为的信息很有价值。特别是，在算法和数据结构领域，传统上被认为是计算机科学的核心领域，学生发现很难，算法动画的出现在CS教学社区中创造了很大的期望，因为动画被视为比使用纯粹的静态媒体更好的方式来描绘算法的动态工作。然而，在相信可视化有用性的流行与可视化实际应用的程度之间存在明显的脱节。在这个项目中，pi将调查这样一个假设，即目前的PV系统未能达到预期，因为它们在很大程度上忽略了有效观看的适当感知属性问题，并且为了有效的PV系统必须支持感知上适当的动画，图形设计和布局，以及良好的教学设计。为了解决这个问题，pi将识别和评估程序可视化的感知、注意力和认知方面，并将量化和分类这些结果。他们将对教师如何教学进行观察性研究，以确定教师在准备和呈现基于可视化的课程时所执行的任务，并将为程序可视化和更普遍的过程可视化开发改进的演示和交互技术。pi期望通过实证研究对pv相关属性的影响进行批判性评估，开发pv质量指标，以及基于这些指标的模型的调整和评估，将为未来研究程序可视化的好处提供规范化参数。更重要的是，这项工作将作为有效使用PV和其他形式的过程可视化的设计指南的基础。更广泛的影响：该项目将推进人机交互和感知心理学的知识状态；将提供特别适用于程序可视化和过程可视化的设计指南，并为此类展示的所有观众（学生，科学家和一般公众）提供潜在的好处；将吸引本科生和研究生参与计算机科学和感知心理学的研究；将包括来自代表性不足群体的参与者（pi的学生包括非洲裔美国人、亚洲人和女性）；并将导致出版物出现在期刊和会议记录中，以及将通过网络传播的软件和评估指标中。

Many programmers, instructors, and programming students have a strong intuitive belief that visualization is valuable for communicating information about the state and behavior of programs. In particular, in the area of algorithms and data structures, traditionally regarded as a core area of computer science that students find difficult, the advent of algorithm animation created great expectations in the CS teaching community, as animation was seen as a better way to portray the dynamic workings of algorithms than was the use of purely static media. However, an apparent disconnect exists between the prevalence of a belief in the usefulness of visualization and the extent to which visualization is actually employed. In this project, the PIs will investigate the hypothesis that present PV systems have failed to live up to expectations because they have largely ignored the issue of appropriate perceptual properties for effective viewing, and that in order to be effective PV systems must support perceptually appropriate animation, graphical design and layout, as well as good pedagogical design. In order to address this problem, the PIs will identify and evaluate perceptual, attentional, and cognitive aspects of program visualization and will quantify and categorize these results. They will perform observational studies of how instructors teach in order to identify the tasks that instructors perform in preparing and presenting visualization-based lesson, and will develop improved presentation and interaction techniques for program visualization and more generally for process visualization. The PIs expect that critical evaluation of the effects of relevant attributes of PVs, the development of metrics for quality of PVs, and the tuning and evaluation of models based on these metrics through empirical studies, will serve to provide normalizing parameters for future studies of the benefits of program visualization. More importantly, this work will serve as the basis for design guidelines for the effective use of PV and other forms of process visualization.Broader Impacts: This project will advance the state of knowledge in human-computer interaction and perceptual psychology; will provide design guidelines applicable to program visualization and process visualization in particular, with potential benefit to all viewers of such displays (students, scientists, and the general public); will engage both undergraduate and graduate students in research in both computer science and perceptual psychology; will include participants from under-represented groups (the PIs students include African Americans, Asians, and women); and will result in publications that will appear in journals and conference proceedings, and in software and evaluation metrics that will be disseminated through the web.