Relating Reading, Visualization, and Coding for New Programmers: A Neuroimaging Study

Understanding how novices reason about coding at a neurological level has implications for training the next generation of software engineers. In recent years, medical imaging has been increasingly employed to investigate patterns of neural activity associated with coding activity. However, such studies have focused on advanced undergraduates and professionals. In a human study of 31 participants, we use functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure the neural activity associated with introductory programming. In a controlled, contrast-based experiment, we relate brain activity when coding to that of reading natural language or mentally rotating objects (a spatial visualization task). Our primary result is that all three tasks—coding, prose reading, and mental rotation—are mentally distinct for novices. However, while those tasks are neurally distinct, we find more significant differences between prose and coding than between mental rotation and coding. Intriguingly, we generally find more activation in areas of the brain associated with spatial ability and task difficulty for novice coding compared to that reported in studies with more expert developers. Finally, in an exploratory analysis, we also find a neural activation pattern predictive of programming performance 11 weeks later. While preliminary, these findings both expand on previous results (e.g., relating expertise to a similarity between coding and prose reading) and also provide a new understanding of the cognitive processes underlying novice programming.

了解小说在神经层面上进行编码的原因是近年来培训下一代的软件工程师。本科生和专业人士在对31名参与者的研究中，我们使用功能性的近红外光谱来衡量与引入编程相关的神经活动。或精神上旋转的对象（空间可视化任务）。与精神旋转和编码之间的编码相比，我们通常在与更多专家开发人员的研究中发现的与空间能力和任务难度相关的大脑区域的激活。我们还发现了11周后的编程性能的神经元激活模式。新手编程。