Novice and expert, how are they programming differently?

Abstract

Software is a human-intensive technology and the studies of cognitive processes in software engineering can shed light on many software engineering problems. Studying the expertise, i. e., how programmers do the programming, may have implications for knowledge engineering. In this talk, we introduce the current status of research on the differences of cognitive process between expert and novice programmers when they do programming. The related empirical research methods and cognitive models are also elaborated. We also discuss some possible research directions in this field.