Despite its vast capacity and associative powers, the human brain does not deal well with interruptions. Particularly in situations where information density is high, such as during a programming task, recovering from an interruption requires extensive time and effort. Although researchers recognize this problem, no programming tool takes into account the brain's structure and limitations in its design. In this dissertation, I describe my research collecting evidence about the impact of interruptions on programmers, understanding how programmers manage them in practice, and designing tools that can support interrupted programmers. I present a conceptual framework for understanding human memory organization and its strengths and weaknesses, particularly with respect to dealing with work interruptions. The framework explains empirical results obtained from experiments in which programmers were interrupted. For researchers, the intent is to use the framework to design development tools capable of compensating for human memory limitations. For developers, the insights and strategies from the framework should allow reflection on our own programming habits and work practices and how they may be tailored to better fit our human brain. The framework is evaluated by conducting two experiments that find that 1) developers can recall nearly twice as many past programming events using a tool designed with the framework over traditional tools, with comparable recall effort and 2) developers can remember to perform nearly twice as many prospective actions using a tool designed with the framework over traditional tools, with limited impact to cognitive load.

Thesis (M.S. in computer science)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 26, 2009). "School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science." Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-72).

Thesis (D. Ed.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 11, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-119).

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Systems)--Naval Postgraduate School, September1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Haga, William J. Second Reader: Mehay, Stephen L. "September 1990." Description based on title screen viewed on December 16, 2009. DTIC Descriptor(s): Computer personnel, shortages, programmers, analysts, systems analysis, theses, computers, specialists. DTIC Identifier(s): Computer programs, systems analysis, specialists, shortages, theses. Author(s) subject terms: Programmer, systems analysis, shortage, shortfall. Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-30). Also available in print.

No description available.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 1999. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 99 p. : ill. (some col.) Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 76-80).

This thesis presents the results of two studies that investigate the question of what interruption-styles are most appropriate for end-user programmers who are debugging programs. In the studies, end-user programmers are presented with surprises that encourage them to investigate, use, and learn about debugging devices in their programming environment. We used various interruption-styles to present these surprises to the end-user programmers, and we evaluated how they affected the end-user programmers ability to learn about the debugging features, their accuracy at debugging their programs, and how accurate they were at judging how well they had debugged their programs. The three styles we compared were immediate-style interruptions (which force the user to acknowledge them), low-intensity negotiated-style interruptions (which do not force the user to acknowledge them, but rather use visual elements such as red circles around cell values in order to notify users that there is something for them to do), and high-intensity negotiated-style interruptions (which are the same as low-intensity negotiated-style interruptions except that the visual elements are more intense, e.g. they are larger and they blink). We found that low-intensity negotiated-style interruptions best supported end-user programmers debugging, learning, and self-assessment. We also found that immediate-style and high-intensity negotiated-style interruptions had very similar effects on the end-user programmers. / Graduation date: 2004

Guidelines for using style to improve computer program comprehension have often been proposed without empirical testing. This thesis reports on the results of three controlled experiments that investigated ways program style may be used to aid comprehension of source code listings. Experiments 1 and 2 were conducted using advanced computer science students as subjects and short Pascal programs. Results showed that student programmers used meaningful identifier names as important sources of information during comprehension of short programs. A review of the literature showed the need for the thesis' proposed methodology for designing controlled experiments on program comprehension that produce results which generalize well to situations involving professional programmers working on real world tasks. This methodology was used to design Experiment 3. Text comprehension researchers have investigated the use of signaling, or the placement of non-content information, in a text in order to emphasize certain ideas and/or clarify the organization. Experiment 3 investigated the role of signaling in another domain, that of computer program source code listings. The experiment had professional programmers study a 913-line C program. Three types of signals were investigated: preview statements, headings, and typographic cueing. The major results were (a) meaningful module names served as headings in the source code listing and helped professional programmers understand and locate information in the program; (b) header comments, when written as preview statements, helped professional programmers understand and locate information in the program; (c) typographic cueing, designed to provide emphasis and segmentation cues, helped programmers understand the program; and (d) the effects of meaningful names, header comments, and typographic cueing were additive. No significant interactions of effects were observed. Based on these results, guidelines are proposed for ways programmers may use comments and module names in source code to act as signals that aid future readers. In addition, guidelines are suggested for adding typographic signaling to provide emphasis to the comments and names. / Graduation date: 1992