Paper Info
Title
Expertise-dependent visual attention strategies develop over time during debugging with multiple code representations
Abstract
In modern multi-representational environments, software developers need to coordinate various information sources to effectively perform maintenance tasks. Although visual attention is an important skill in software development, our current understanding of the role of visual attention in the coordination of representations during maintenance tasks is minimal. Therefore, we applied eye-tracking to capture visual attention strategies and construct a detailed account of visual attention during debugging. Two groups of programmers with two distinct levels of experience debugged a program with the help of multiple representations. The proportion of time spent looking at each representation, the frequency of switching attention between visualrepresentations and the type of switch were investigated during consecutive phases of debugging. We found repetitive patterns in visual strategies that were associated with less expertise and lower performance. Novice developers made use of both the code and graphical representations while frequently switching between them. More experienced participants expended more efforts integrating the available information and primarily concentrated on systematically relating the code to the output. Our results informed us about the differences in program debugging strategies from a fine-grain, temporal perspective and have implications for the design of future development environments.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.1016/j.ijhcs.2011.09.003
Int. J. Hum.-Comput. Stud.
Keywords
Field
DocType
Expertise in programming,Visual attention,Program debugging
Computer science,Visual attention,Human–computer interaction,Software,Software development,Debugging,Algorithmic program debugging
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
70
2
1071-5819
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
18
0.97
21
Authors
1
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Roman Bednarik156148.77