Mental representations of programs by novices and experts

Abstract

This paper presents five abstract characteristics of the mental representation of computer programs: hierarchical structure, explicit mapping of code to goals, foundation on recognition of recurring patterns, connection of knowledge, and grounding in the program text. An experiment is reported in which expert and novice programmers studied a Pascal program for comprehension and then answered a series of questions about it designed to show these characteristics if they existed in the mental representations formed. Evidence for all of the abstract characteristics was found in the mental representations of expert programmers. Novices' representations generally lacked the characteristics, but there was evidence that they had the beginnings, although poorly developed, of such characteristics.