Toward measuring program comprehension with functional magnetic resonance imaging

Authors:
Janet Siegmund;André Brechmann;Sven Apel;Christian Kästner;Jörg Liebig;Thomas Leich;Gunter Saake
Affiliations:
University of Magdeburg, Germany;Leibniz Inst. for Neurobiology Magdeburg, Germany;University of Passau, Germany;Philipps University Marburg, Germany;University of Passau, Germany;Metop Research Institute, Magdeburg, Germany;University of Magdeburg, Germany
Venue:
Proceedings of the ACM SIGSOFT 20th International Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering
Year:
2012

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Abstract

Program comprehension is an often evaluated, internal cognitive process. In neuroscience, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to visualize such internal cognitive processes. We propose an experimental design to measure program comprehension based on fMRI. In the long run, we hope to answer questions like What distinguishes good programmers from bad programmers? or What makes a good programmer?