In der heutigen Zeit ist die effiziente Nutzung aller verfügbaren Ressourcen von zentralem Interesse. Im Bereich der Flugführung hat die Fernüberwachung von Flughäfen aus diesem Grund über die letzten 10 Jahre immer mehr Bedeutung erlangt. Die größten Vorteile der Fernüberwachung liegen in der geringeren Abhängigkeit von Flughafengebäuden und deren Instandhaltung, einer vereinfachten Personalplanung (vor allem bei kleinen Flughäfen) sowie dem möglichen Hinzufügen von zusätzlichen Informationen beim Arbeitsplatz zur Fernüberwachung. Insbesondere das Designen eines Arbeitsplatzes zur Fernüberwachung hat in diesem Zusammenhang eine Schlüsselrolle eingenommen. Die größte Herausforderung bei dieser Umsetzung ist ein Mensch-Computer-Interaktionsmodell, das die Verlagerung der Arbeitsplätze unterstützt, indem es die Einflüsse auf den Operateur und dessen Aufgaben beschreibt. Die vorliegende Dissertation fokussiert sich auf die Anwendung und Verbesserung eines Mensch-Computer-Interfacemodells zur Umwandlung eines Arbeitsplatzinterfaces ohne Beeinflussung der Aufgabe des Operateurs. Das präsentierte Modell konzentriert sich auf den Informationsfluss am Arbeitsplatz, anstatt technisch machbare Konzepte zu präsentieren. Es besteht aus 3 Teilen, welche sich separat mit dem Einfluss des veränderten Interfaces auf den Informationsfluss auseinandersetzen. Das Modell wird für die Thematik der Fernüberwachung spezifiziert und angewendet. Nur wenige Publikationen beschäftigten sich bisher mit Strategien, mit denen Towerlotsen Flugführung durchführen. Daher ist das Ziel dieser Arbeit, einen soliden Beitrag zur Entwicklung der Psychologie im Bereich Mensch-Computer-Interaktion zu leisten, welcher durch praktische Anwendungen und Erweiterungen der Methodik untermauert wird. Der Hauptunterschied zwischen dem konventionellen Arbeitsplatz und dem Arbeitsplatz zur Fernüberwachung ist der Verlust der Außensicht und des Fernglases und deren Ersatz durch Kamerasysteme. Neue Systeme in der Flugsicherung können die menschliche Leistung beeinflussen. Daher hat die Fernüberwachung besonderen Einfluss auf die Bereiche Ausrüstung des Arbeitsplatzes, das Benutzerinterface und menschliche Leistungsfähigkeit. Die Herausforderung für die Ausrüstung des Arbeitsplatzes besteht darin, Informationen zu identifizieren, welche durch die Fernüberwachung reduziert wurden und diese durch zusätzliche Informationensysteme bzw. Assistenzsysteme zu ergänzen. Für den Faktor Benutzerinterface ist das Ermitteln und Analysieren von dynamischen Informationen besonders wichtig. Für die menschliche Leistungsfähigkeit besteht hier die Frage, wie sich Arbeitslast und Situationsbewusstsein kombiniert auf die Leistung auswirken und welche Konsequenzen das auf die Arbeit an einem Arbeitsplatz zur Fernüberwachung hat. Alle Herausforderungen wurden im Detail analysiert. Für den Faktor Ausrüstung des Arbeitsplatzes zeigen zwei Analysen die große Vielzahl an Indikatoren, welche verwendet werden können, um die Veränderung des Informationsflusses zu bestimmen. Die detaillierte Analyse des Windsack Indikators liefert ein Beispiel, wie die verschiedenen Indikatoren angewendet werden können. Die zweite Analyse zeigt, wie die bestehenden Indikatoren zur Lotsenaufgabe um spezielle Wetterindikatoren erweitert werden, um den Aspekt der Überwachung des Luftraums vollständig abzudecken. Für den Faktor Benutzerinterface wurde eine besondere Blickanalyse mit dem Namen Integration Guideline for Dynamic Areas of Interest (IGDAI) entwickelt. Diese erlaubt, die dynamischen Informationen innerhalb des Interfaces eines Arbeitsplatzes zu analysieren. Sie wird auf den Arbeitsplatz zur Fernüberwachung angewendet. Für den Faktor menschliche Leistungsfähigkeit zeigt eine detaillierte Analyse, wie Arbeitslast und Situationsbewusstsein die Leistung bei niedriger und hoher Aufgabenlast beeinflussen. Durch das Anwenden von IGDAI konnten zwei Kontrollstrategien in Abhängigkeit zur Aufgabenlast identifiziert werden. Das bereitgestellte Model für die Veränderung des Interfaces ohne Beeinflussung der Operatoraufgabe stellt einen Sonderfall in Bereich der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion dar. Der Übergang vom konventionellen zum Fernüberwachungsarbeitsplatz ist ein sich immer noch fortsetzender Prozess. Weitere Entwicklungen im Bereich der Fernüberwachung von Flughäfen sind notwendig, um den zukünftigen Herausforderungen an die Flugführung zu begegnen. Deshalb stellen die in dieser Dissertation dargestellten Konstrukte, erarbeiteten Methoden sowie Ergebnisse eine solide Basis für zukünftige Forschungsarbeiten bereit.:Table of Contents I Synopsis 1 1 Introduction 2 2 Research framework and goals 4 2.1 Human-computer interaction 4 2.2 Remote Tower Operations 4 2.3 Remote Tower Research 6 2.4 Embedding into HCI 7 2.5 Research goals of the dissertation 8 3 The development of a new workplace 9 3.1 Redesign of a workplace 9 3.2 Design factors in Aviation 10 3.3 Remote Tower Metrics 11 3.4 Dynamic Areas of Interests 11 3.5 Adaptation and strategy shifts 11 4 Methodological aspects of the dissertation 13 4.1 Identify and evaluate remote tower metrics 13 4.2 Evaluate dynamic areas of interest 13 4.3 Measuring Situation Awareness 14 5 Discussion and implications 16 5.1 Summarising the findings 16 5.2 Theoretical implications 17 5.3 Implications for the application 19 5.4 Critical reflection of the methodology 20 5.5 Revenue for psychological research 22 6 Literature 24 II Article 1: How to Evaluate Remote Tower Metrics in Connection to Weather Observations. An Extension of the Existing Metrics 28 III Article 2: A Guideline for Integrating Dynamic Areas of Interests in Existing Set-up for Capturing Eye Movement: Looking at Moving Aircraft 53 IV Article 3: The Influence of Task Load on Situation Awareness and Control Strategy in the ATC Tower Environment. 84 V Contributions to conferences 116 VI Curriculum vitae and publications 117 / The efficient usage of all available resources is a central interest of our time. In air traffic management, the topic of remote tower operations has increased in importance over the last 10 years. Herein, the design of a remote tower workplace plays a key role in the successful implementation of remote tower operations. Less dependency on building and maintaining airport control towers, an improved human research planning (especially for small airports) and an increase in available information to the conventional tower workplace are central advantages of remote tower operations. However, a potential challenge for this approach is an HCI model that supports the transition by describing the influence on the operator task. This dissertation focuses on the application and improvement of an HCI approach to redesign a workplace by changing the interface without influencing the task of the operator. The presented model focuses on the flow of information rather than the presentation of technical possibilities. It consists of three parts that each individually measure and analyse the influence that a redesigned interface has on the flow in information. This model is specified and applied to remote tower operations. Prior to this dissertation, there were only a few publications connected to the strategies that air traffic control officers (ATCO) in the tower use to control traffic and virtually no publications connected to the practical implications for working at a remote tower workplace. Therefore, the goal was to provide a well-founded contribution to the development of psychology in the area of human-computer interaction by applying the psychological theories and extension of the methodology. The main difference between the conventional and the remote tower workplaces is the replacement of out-the-window view and binoculars by camera systems. Based on what influences the human performance in connection with new systems developed in air traffic control, most changes afflict the general workstation and equipment, the user interface, and human resource management. The challenge for the factor workstation and equipment is to identify the information decrease at the remote tower workplace and its replacement with additional information whilst simultaneously ensuring that this information can be tested in a standardised manor throughout a variety of research projects and several different prototypes. The challenge for the factor user interface was the analysis of the dynamic information presented at the remote tower workplace. The challenge for the human resource management is to identify how workload and situation awareness influence performance. In sum, all challenges are analysed in detail. For the factor workstation and equipment, two analyses showed a large variety of indicators that are applicable to evaluate the difference in the flow of information between the conventional and the remote tower workplace. The first analysis of the windsock indicator provided an example of how the different metrics can be applied. The second analysis showed that the weather remote tower metrics extend the existing remote tower metrics and thereby complete the aspects of the monitoring that an ATCO has to perform. For the factor user interface an advanced gaze analysis, called Integration Guideline for Dynamic Areas of Interest (IGDAI) was developed. This allows for a detailed analysis of the dynamic information presented at the remote tower workplace. For the factor human resource management, a detailed analysis shows how situation awareness and workload influence performance within low and high task load phases. By applying IGDAI, the existence of two control strategies for the Air Traffic Control (ATC) environment that are each related to the task load phases could be identified as well as the extent to which these might afflict remote tower operations. The provided model of redesigning only the interface presents a detailed approach for a special case in HCI. The transition from the conventional to the remote tower operations is an ongoing process that will be continued. The development in the domain of remote tower operations seems to be stable and necessary to keep up with the challenges of future air traffic management. Therefore, the analysed constructs, developed methodologies and presented results from this dissertation provide a seminal basis for the necessary future research.:Table of Contents I Synopsis 1 1 Introduction 2 2 Research framework and goals 4 2.1 Human-computer interaction 4 2.2 Remote Tower Operations 4 2.3 Remote Tower Research 6 2.4 Embedding into HCI 7 2.5 Research goals of the dissertation 8 3 The development of a new workplace 9 3.1 Redesign of a workplace 9 3.2 Design factors in Aviation 10 3.3 Remote Tower Metrics 11 3.4 Dynamic Areas of Interests 11 3.5 Adaptation and strategy shifts 11 4 Methodological aspects of the dissertation 13 4.1 Identify and evaluate remote tower metrics 13 4.2 Evaluate dynamic areas of interest 13 4.3 Measuring Situation Awareness 14 5 Discussion and implications 16 5.1 Summarising the findings 16 5.2 Theoretical implications 17 5.3 Implications for the application 19 5.4 Critical reflection of the methodology 20 5.5 Revenue for psychological research 22 6 Literature 24 II Article 1: How to Evaluate Remote Tower Metrics in Connection to Weather Observations. An Extension of the Existing Metrics 28 III Article 2: A Guideline for Integrating Dynamic Areas of Interests in Existing Set-up for Capturing Eye Movement: Looking at Moving Aircraft 53 IV Article 3: The Influence of Task Load on Situation Awareness and Control Strategy in the ATC Tower Environment. 84 V Contributions to conferences 116 VI Curriculum vitae and publications 117

Background. The heads-up display (HUD) is a useful tool for displaying information to the player in a game, but the HUD is not a part of the game world. This could take away from the desired experience of the game and block important parts of the main action screen. To counteract this the HUD mostly occupies the edges of the screen and avoids drawing the player’s attention away from the main action scene except when it has important information for the player. Only having the HUD visible when it has important information to the player could remove the distraction of the HUD while keeping all the benefits of having one. Objectives. By using eye tracking to complement the HUD, the HUD can be invisible when the player does not use it, and change how the information is presented depending on where the player is looking. By creating a first-person shooter (FPS) game with a HUD complemented by eye tracking, then comparing it to how a normal HUD differed in terms of visibility and clutter, using a survey. Methods. The game was created using the Tobii Unity SDK and modifying the FPS demo scene. To create the gaze sensitive HUD three scripts were created to produce the finished result. Giving the HUD the ability to make all HUD elements invisible and able to appear after passing a specific value or when the element has new information, the HUD also has the ability to present information close to the player’s gaze point in the of notifications. The game was then presented to the participants in the form of two videos one using the normal HUD and one using the gaze sensitive HUD. After watching the partisans answered a survey related to the videos. Results. The gaze-based HUD was generally on par with the normal HUD. The most noticeable significant difference being that the normal HUDs ammunition counter and health bar was proffered over a less visible one. Conclusions. From the results gathered having a gaze-based HUD does not make it harder to notify the player of important information and dos not make the HUD less cluttered, compared to a normal HUD, but there is a difference between them.

User behavior analysis in web applications is currently mainly performed by analysis of statistical measurements based on user interactions or by creation of personas to better understand users. Both of these methods give great insights in how the users utilize a web site, but do not give any additional information about what they are actually doing. This thesis attempts to use eye tracking data for analysis of user activities in web applications. Eye tracking data has been recorded, labeled and analyzed for 25 test participants. No data source except eye tracking data has been used and two different approaches are attempted where the first relies on a gaze map representation of the data and the second relies on sequences of features. The results indicate that it is possible to distinguish user activities in web applications, but only at a high error-rate. Improvement are possible by implementing a less subjective labeling process and by including features from other data sources. / I nuläget utförs analys av användarbeteende i webbapplikationer primärt med hjälp av statistiska mått över användares beteenden på hemsidor tillsammans med personas förökad förståelse av olika typer av användare. Dessa metoder ger stor insikt i hur användare använder hemsidor men ger ingen information om vilka typer av aktiviteter användare har utfört på hemsidan. Denna rapport försöker skapa metoder för analys av användaraktiviter på hemsidor endast baserat på blickdata fångade med eye trackers. Blick data från 25 personer har samlats in under tiden de utför olika uppgifter på olika hemsidor. Två olika tekniker har utvärderats där den ena analyserar blick kartor som fångat ögonens rörelser under 10 sekunder och den andra tekniken använder sig av sekvenser av händelser för att klassificera aktiviteter. Resultaten indikerar att det går att urskilja olika typer av vanligt förekommande användaraktiviteter genom analys av blick data. Resultatet visar också att det är stor osäkerhet i prediktionerna och ytterligare arbete är nödvändigt för att finna användbara modeller.

One way of increasing 3D rendering performance is the use of foveated rendering. In this thesis a novel foveated rendering technique called gaze contingent depth of field tessellation (GC DOF tessellation) is proposed. Tessellation is the process of subdividing geometry to increase detail. The technique works by applying tessellation to all objects within the focal plane, gradually decreasing tessellation levels as applied blur increases. As the user moves their gaze the focal plane shifts and objects go from blurry to sharp at the same time as the fidelity of the object increases. This can help hide the pops that occur as objects change shape. The technique was evaluated in a user study with 32 participants. For the evaluated scene the technique helped reduce the number of primitives rendered by around 70 % and frame time by around 9 % compared to using full adaptive tessellation. The user study showed that as the level of blur increased the detection rate for pops decreased, suggesting that the technique could be used to hide pops that occur due to tessellation. However, further research is needed to solidify these findings. / Ett sätt att öka renderingsprestanda i 3D applikationer är att använda foveated rendering. I denna uppsats presenteras en ny foveated rendering-teknik som kallas gaze contingent depth of field tessellering (GC DOF tessellering). Tessellering är när geometri delas i mindre delar för att öka detaljrikedom. Tekniken fungerar genom att applicera tessellering på alla objekt i fokalplanet och gradvis minska tesselleringsnivåer när oskärpan ökar. När användaren flyttar sin blick så flyttas fokalplanet och suddiga objekt blir skarpa samtidigt som detaljrikedomen i objektet ökar. Det kan hjälpa till att dölja de ’pops’ som uppstår när objekt ändrar form. Tekniken utvärderades i en användarstudie med 32 del- tagare. I den utvärderade scenen visade sig tekniken minska antalet renderade primitiver med ca 70 % och minska renderingstiden med ca 9 % jämfört med att använda full adaptiv tessellering. Användarstudien visade att när oskärpa ökade så minskade antalet som sa sig se ’pops’, vilket tyder på att tekniken kan användas för att dölja de ’pops’ som uppstår på grund av tessellering. Det behövs dock ytterligare forskning för att säkerställa dessa fynd.

There is a distinction between participants and observers; the former performs an activity, whereas the latter spectates. The idea of observers who can influence activities is largely unexplored and could contain potential use-cases for eye-trackers and improve social presence in digital settings. This thesis adds to existing research by investigating whether higher degrees of observer influence correspond to increased social presence perception in digital co-located settings. It also provides designers with a tool that helps design and evaluate interactions accounting for observers' influences. The thesis presents five gaze implementations across two games that allow observers to influence them to investigate the hypothesised link between social presence perception and an observer's degree of influence. The results indicate that the link exists, although more tests are necessary to determine whether there is a noticeable difference between observers who impact activities directly and indirectly.

A complete understanding of the functional and structural impairments driving persistent post-concussive symptom (PCS) expression in approximately one-third of those who suffer from mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is essential for the development of effective treatment strategies and improving quality of life. While traditional outcome measures, such as neuropsychological testing and structural magnetic resonance imaging, are sensitive to the severe functional impairments and widespread tissue damage frequently seen after moderate-to-severe injuries, more advanced measures that are sensitive to the subtle changes in cognitive function and tissue microstructure that may underlie persistent PCS are necessary for the assessment of recovery from mTBI. Toward this end, the current study investigates the utility of eye-tracking analysis and high-definition fiber tractography (HDFT) as advanced measures of functional and microstructural outcome in 11 adults with chronic mTBI and varying levels of PCS (ages 20-60; mean time post-injury = 9.53 ± 6.74 years) in comparison to 10 healthy adults (ages 20-54). Performance on neuropsychological and eye-tracking tasks of processing speed, attention, and working memory, and HDFT-derived quantitative measures of the microstructural integrity of the forceps major, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, middle longitudinal fasciculus, and superior longitudinal fasciculus were compared between groups, and the results were used to define discriminatory functions for mTBI classification. The relationships between neuropsychological and eye-tracking measures of cognitive function and HDFT-derived measures of tract integrity were explored, as was the utility of these functional and structural measures for predicting persistent PCS in chronic mTBI. The results suggest that eye-tracking analysis may be more specific to cognitive impairments resulting from mTBI than neuropsychological testing, and HDFT is highly sensitive and specific to the subtle microstructural changes that persist chronically in this population. Furthermore, white matter integrity assessed using HDFT is more strongly associated with impairments in processing speed, attention, and memory indicated through eye-tracking analysis relative to performance on neuropsychological tests. Finally, although the predictive utility of eye-tracking and HDFT for the experience of persistent PCS was not demonstrated in the present sample, the possibility that these data are confounded by symptom exaggeration, comorbid mental health impairment, or lack of self-awareness for functional deficits cannot be ruled out, and future research using large, homogenous sample of mTBI is necessary to validate the present findings.

Studies indicate an attentional bias towards food in binge-eating disorder (BED), however, more evidence on attentional engagement and disengagement and processing of multiple attention-competing stimuli is needed. This study aimed to examine visual attention to food and non-food stimuli in BED. In n = 23 participants with full-syndrome and subsyndromal BED and n = 23 individually matched healthy controls, eye-tracking was used to assess attention to food and non-food stimuli during a free exploration paradigm and a visual search task. In the free exploration paradigm, groups did not differ in initial fixation position. While both groups fixated non-food stimuli significantly longer than food stimuli, the BED group allocated significantly more attention towards food than controls. In the visual search task, groups did not differ in detection times. However, a significant detection bias for food was found in full-syndrome BED, but not in controls. An increased initial attention towards food was related to greater BED symptomatology and lower body mass index (BMI) only in full-syndrome BED, while greater maintained attention to food was associated with lower BMI in controls. The results suggest food-biased visual attentional processing in adults with BED. Further studies should clarify the implications of attentional processes for the etiology and maintenance of BED.

Many games are set in 3D worlds and have shifting camera viewpoints. In this study, we attempt to create and evaluate a Proof-of-Concept Worldspace Heatmap System that accounts for the shifting camera views in 3D game worlds, in an attempt to improve user testing processes. We test the system by conducting a stimulated recall user study, in which we examine the areas in a game that drew the attention of the participants, with the help of heatmaps placed in the game world. Our results include observations of several behavior patterns and participant evaluations of the Worldspace Heatmap System. We observed multiple indications in the data we gathered, that such a system can be useful for obtaining player behavior insights and for enhancing user testing processes, especially if some of the limitations are overcome.

The video game and esports industry has grown exponentially over the past few years.“During recent years, esports have become one of the most rapidly growing forms ofnew media driven by the growing provenance of online games and onlinebroadcasting technologies” (Hamari and Sjöblom, 2017). Sponsors have identifiedmarketing opportunities in this rapidly growing advertising medium. Brand placementin esports is gaining momentum as a means to target audiences in an indirect andengaging way. In our study we have defined embedded brand placement in the contextof video games and esports as the practice of including a brand name, signage or otherforms of trademark merchandise integrated naturally within the game and in return,visibly featured in the esport broadcast. The aim of this study was to examine howembedded brand placement performed during different spectating scenarios whichpossess different distraction levels and in-game dynamics (audio and visual). Ourstudy explores the effectiveness of embedded brand placement within esports byemploying an eye tracking methodology as well as a brand recall exercise inconnection to participant's prior involvement with the video game, League of Legendsand the respective esports scene. The practical implications from the results of thisstudy hope to assist advertisers in making a better informed decision aboutcollaborating with esport events and uncover a better perception in regards to howthey might expect their advertising messages to perform. Through our study, we havesuccessfully contributed to the foundation of research surrounding embedded brandplacements within esports through our investigation of practical factors affecting towhich extent viewers are able to consume these advertising messages. These factorsbeing prior involvement, how differing spectating scenarios, distractions and in-gamedynamics affect fixations on advertising messages and finally how the above factorscontribute to overall brand recall as well as long-term versus short-term brandrecollection.

Background: Software is an integral part of today's world with an outlook of ever-increasing importance. Maintaining all of these software artifacts is a major challenge for software engineering. A future with robust software primarily relies on programmers' ability to understand existing source code, because they spend most of their time on it. Program comprehension is the cognitive process of understanding source code. Since program comprehension is an internal cognitive process, it is inherently difficult to observe and measure reliably. Decades of research have developed fundamental models of program comprehension, but there still are substantial knowledge gaps in our understanding of program comprehension. Novel psycho-physiological and neuroimaging measures provide an additional perspective on program comprehension which promise new insights to program comprehension. Recently, these measures have been permeating software engineering research. The measures include eye tracking and physiological sensors, but also neuroimaging measures, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which allow researchers to more objectively observe cognitive processes. Aims: This dissertation aims to advance software engineering by better understanding program comprehension. We apply and refine the use of psycho-physiological and neuroimaging measures. The goals are twofold: First, we develop a framework for studying program comprehension with neuroimaging, psycho-physiological, eye tracking, and behavioral methods. For neuroimaging, we focus on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), as it allows researchers to unravel cognitive processes in high detail. Our framework offers a detailed, multi-modal view on program comprehension that allows us to examine even small effects. Second, we shed light on the underlying cognitive process of program comprehension by applying our experiment framework. One major focus is to understand experienced programmers' efficient top-down comprehension. We also link programmers' cognition to common code complexity metrics. Method and Results: To fulfill our goals, we conduct a series of empirical studies on program comprehension. In these studies, we use and combine fMRI, psycho-physiological, and eye-tracking measures. Throughout the experiments, we develop and refine a multi-modal experiment framework to shed light onto program comprehension with a neuro-cognitive perspective. We demonstrate that the framework provides a reliable approach to quantify and to investigate programmers' cognitive processes. We explore the neuro-cognitive perspective of program comprehension to validate and extend established program-comprehension models. We show that programmers using top-down comprehension require less cognitive effort, but use the same network of brain areas. We also demonstrate how our developed experiment framework and fMRI as a measure can be used in software engineering to provide objective data in long-standing debates. For example, we show that commonly used, but criticized code complexity metrics indeed only have a limited predictive power on the required cognitive effort to understand source code. Conclusion: In our interdisciplinary research, we show how neuroimaging methods, such as fMRI, in combination with psycho-physiological, eye tracking and behavioral measures, is beneficial to software-engineering research. This dissertation provides a foundation to further investigate the neuro-cognitive perspective to programmers' brains, which is a critical contribution to the future of software engineering. / Hintergrund: Software ist ein fester Bestandteil der heutigen Welt mit einer immer wichtiger werdenden Bedeutung. Das moderne Leben ist infolgedessen zunehmend von funktionierender und möglichst fehlerfreier Software abhängig. Deshalb ist die Pflege aller Software-Artefakte eine wichtige und große Herausforderung für das Software-Engineering. Eine Zukunft mit robuster Software hängt in erster Linie von der Fähigkeit ab, den vorhandenen Quellcode zu verstehen, da damit die meiste Zeit verbracht wird. Programmverständnis ist der kognitive Prozess des Verstehens von Quellcode. Da dieser kognitive Prozess intern abläuft, ist ein zuverlässiges Beobachten und ein genaues Messen mit erheblichen Schwierigkeiten verbunden. Jahrzehntelange Forschung hat zwar grundlegende Modelle des Programmverständnisses entwickelt, aber das Bild von Programmverständnis weist noch immer erhebliche Wissenslücken auf. Neuartige psychophysiologische und nicht-invasive human-bildgebende Verfahren bieten zusätzliche Perspektiven auf das Programmverständnis, die neue Erkenntnisse versprechen. In den letzten Jahren haben diese Erfassungsmöglichkeiten die Software-Engineering-Forschung durchdrungen. Zu den Messverfahren gehören Eyetracking und physiologische Sensoren, aber auch nicht-invasive Human-Bildgebung, wie die funktionelle Magnetresonanztomographie (fMRT). Diese innovativen Messverfahren ermöglichen es Forschenden, kognitive Prozesse objektiver und genauer zu verfolgen und auszuwerten. Ziele: Diese Dissertation zielt darauf ab, Software-Engineering durch ein besseres Erfassen des Programmverständnisses voranzubringen. Dafür werden psychophysiologische und nicht-invasive human-bildgebende Verfahren angewendet und verfeinert. Es werden zwei Ziele verfolgt: Zum einen wird ein Framework für Experimente zum Programmverständnis, die mit Human-Bildgebung, Psychophysiologie, Eyetracking und Verhaltensmethoden durchgeführt werden, entwickelt. Bei der Human-Bildgebung erfolgt die Konzentration auf die funktionelle Magnetresonanztomographie (fMRT), da sie kognitive Prozesse mit hoher Detailschärfe entschlüsseln kann. Das entwickelte Framework bietet eine detaillierte, multimodale Sicht auf das Programmverständnis, die es ermöglicht, auch kleine Effekte zu untersuchen. Zum anderen wird der zugrunde liegende kognitive Prozess des Programmverständnisses durch den Einsatz des aufgestellten Frameworks analysiert. Ein Hauptaugenmerk liegt dabei auf dem Erfassen des effizienten Top-Down-Verstehens von Quellcode. Zusätzlich wird die Kognition beim Programmieren mit gängigen Komplexitätsmetriken von Quellcode verknüpft und im Zusammenhang ausgewertet. Methodik und Ergebnisse: Um die Ziele zu erreichen, werden eine Reihe empirischer Studien zum Programmverständnis durchgeführt. In diesen Studien werden fMRT, Psychophysiologie sowie Eyetracking verwendet und miteinander kombiniert. Während der Experimente erfolgt eine Entwicklung und Verfeinerung eines multimodalen Experimentframework, um das Programmverständnis mit einer neurokognitiven Perspektive zu beleuchten. Es wird dokumentiert, dass das entwickelte Framework einen zuverlässigen Ansatz bietet, um kognitive Prozesse beim Programmieren zu quantifizieren und zu untersuchen. Weiterhin wird die neurokognitive Perspektive des Programmverständnisses erforscht, um etablierte Programmverständnismodelle zu validieren und zu erweitern. Im Kontext dessen wird belegt, dass das Top-Down-Verständnis das gleiche Netzwerk von Gehirnbereichen aktiviert, aber zu geringerer kognitiver Last führt. Es wird demonstriert, wie das entwickelte Experimentframework und fMRT als Messverfahren im Software-Engineering verwendet werden können, um in langjährigen Debatten objektive Daten zu bieten. Dabei wird insbesondere gezeigt, weshalb gängige, aber in Frage gestellte Komplexitätsmetriken von Quellcode tatsächlich nur eine begrenzte Vorhersagekraft auf die erforderliche kognitive Last beim Verstehen von Quellcode haben. Schlussfolgerung: In interdisziplinärer Forschung wird nachgewiesen, dass nicht-invasive human-bildgebende Verfahren wie die fMRT, kombiniert mit Psychophysiologie, Eyetracking sowie Verhaltensmethoden für die Software-Engineering-Forschung von erheblichem Vorteil sind. Diese Dissertation bietet eine belastbare Grundlage für die weitere Untersuchung der neurokognitiven Perspektive auf das Gehirn von Programmierern. Damit wird ein entscheidender Beitrag für ein erfolgreiches Software-Engineering geleistet.