The influence of individual differences on the reading of computer programs
Martha E. Crosby · 2003
The author investigated how subject differences interacted with program form to influence the subject's comprehension and memory for computer programs. Twenty-three second-semester computer science students (subjects) read twelve programs written in English and Pascal. Measures of language and programming ability provided the basis for categorization of the subjects into low- and high-performance groups. The dependent variables included general and specific comprehension tests as well as memory load correlates of the subject's reading and recall times. Statistically significant differences between the groups were found for comprehension and memory variables. The low-performance group was particularly influenced by the form of the text, while the high-performance group adapted to the demands of the task. These results suggest that architects of programming languages and human-computer interfaces should include subject differences as a design parameter.>