External Imagery in Computer Programming
Abstract
Imagery is a cognitive process commonly used in sports in which athletes internally or externally visualize themselves performing a skill, allowing them to create an internal experience similar to the physical event. It is intended to allow participants to refine and perfect their performance. This paper investigates the use of imagery in the setting of computer programming. We explore the idea that watching a keystroke replay of yourself writing computer code that solves a specific problem can increase the speed and quality of a subsequent attempt at solving a similar problem as well as improve attitude and engagement. We investigate the theory of imagery, its application to computer programming, and we present results of a qualitative study. Our results suggest that using imagery could have a positive effect on the profitability of spending time reviewing code.
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Some work has used fine-grained programming process logs from instrumented IDEs to uncover student work patterns and to visualize student programming processes.
“Some work has looked into using fine-grained programming process logs gathered from instrumented IDEs to uncover student work patterns [21-23, 26, 40] and to visualize student programming processes [10,14,35,38].”
From Instructor Perceptions of AI Code Generation Tools - A Multi-Institutional Interview Study (2024) · cites this paper as [10]
Cites
Grounded theory research: Procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria
Corbin, J. M., & Strauss, A. (1990) · Qualitative Sociology · doi:10.1007/bf00988593 · Cited by 11,133 · see citing works
Stimulus structures and mental representations in expert comprehension of computer programs
Pennington, N. (1987) · Cognitive Psychology · doi:10.1016/0010-0285(87)90007-7 · Cited by 526 · see citing works
MacIntyre, T. E., Igou, E. R., Campbell, M. J., Moran, A. P., & Matthews, J. (2014) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01155 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
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Instructor Perceptions of AI Code Generation Tools - A Multi-Institutional Interview Study
Sheard, J., Denny, P., Hellas, A., Leinonen, J., Malmi, L., & Simon (2024) · Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1 · doi:10.1145/3626252.3630880 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Developing Novice Programmers’ Self-Regulation Skills with Code Replays
Xie, B., Lim, J. O., Pham, P. K. D., Li, M., & Ko, A. J. (2023) · Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research V.1 · doi:10.1145/3568813.3600127 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ditton, J., Swanson, H., & Edwards, J.
- Affiliations
- Utah State University (US)
- Venue
- Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2021-03-03
- Pages
- 1226-1231
- OpenAlex
- W3133855036
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.17
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Sport Psychology and Performance
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
- Keywords
- mental imagery, external imagery, programming, code review, problem solving, sport imagery
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