Measuring difficulty of program comprehension based on brain activation

Takao Nakagawa; Kenichi Matsumoto; Yasutaka Kamei; Naoyasu Ubayashi; Hidetake Uwano; Akito Monden

Measuring difficulty of program comprehension based on brain activation

Takao Nakagawa, Kenichi Matsumoto, Yasutaka Kamei, Naoyasu Ubayashi, Hidetake Uwano, Akito Monden

School of Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper extends our previous study (letter paper), which quantifies the difficulty of program comprehension based on brain activation measured by NIRS (Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy) during source code reading. We performed controlled experiments with 20 subjects. 3 of 20 subjects could not complete the measurement. We found that: (1) 16 of 17 shows strong brain activation during reading of obfuscated program (binomial test, p <0:01) and (2) subjective evaluation of difficulty is correlated with brain activation (Spearman's correlation coefficient=0.46, p <0:01).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	78-89
Number of pages	12
Journal	Computer Software
Volume	33
Issue number	2
Publication status	Published - May 1 2016

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software

Cite this

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title = "Measuring difficulty of program comprehension based on brain activation",

abstract = "This paper extends our previous study (letter paper), which quantifies the difficulty of program comprehension based on brain activation measured by NIRS (Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy) during source code reading. We performed controlled experiments with 20 subjects. 3 of 20 subjects could not complete the measurement. We found that: (1) 16 of 17 shows strong brain activation during reading of obfuscated program (binomial test, p <0:01) and (2) subjective evaluation of difficulty is correlated with brain activation (Spearman's correlation coefficient=0.46, p <0:01).",

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AU - Nakagawa, Takao

AU - Matsumoto, Kenichi

AU - Kamei, Yasutaka

AU - Ubayashi, Naoyasu

AU - Uwano, Hidetake

AU - Monden, Akito

PY - 2016/5/1

Y1 - 2016/5/1

N2 - This paper extends our previous study (letter paper), which quantifies the difficulty of program comprehension based on brain activation measured by NIRS (Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy) during source code reading. We performed controlled experiments with 20 subjects. 3 of 20 subjects could not complete the measurement. We found that: (1) 16 of 17 shows strong brain activation during reading of obfuscated program (binomial test, p <0:01) and (2) subjective evaluation of difficulty is correlated with brain activation (Spearman's correlation coefficient=0.46, p <0:01).

AB - This paper extends our previous study (letter paper), which quantifies the difficulty of program comprehension based on brain activation measured by NIRS (Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy) during source code reading. We performed controlled experiments with 20 subjects. 3 of 20 subjects could not complete the measurement. We found that: (1) 16 of 17 shows strong brain activation during reading of obfuscated program (binomial test, p <0:01) and (2) subjective evaluation of difficulty is correlated with brain activation (Spearman's correlation coefficient=0.46, p <0:01).

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VL - 33

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Measuring difficulty of program comprehension based on brain activation

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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