Abstract
Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been used as a low cost, noninvasive method to measure brain activity. In this paper, we measure the effects of variables and controls in a source code on brain activity during program comprehension. The measurement results are evaluated after noise reduction and normalization to statistical analysis. As the result of the experiment, significant differences in brain activity were observed at a task that requires memorizing variables to understand a code snippet. On the other hand, no significant difference was observed between different levels of mental arithmetic tasks. We conclude that the frontal pole reflects workload to short-term memory caused by variables without affected from calculation.
Highlights
Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been used in various research fields as a low cost, noninvasive method to measure brain activity
We investigate the effects of each factors in source code from programmer’s brain activity
The NIRS device measures the changes in Oxy-Hb, deOxy-Hb, and Total-Hb that means the sum of the changes in Oxy-Hb and deOxy-Hb
Summary
Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been used in various research fields as a low cost, noninvasive method to measure brain activity. To quantify an action on program comprehension, Nakagawa et al measured cerebral blood flow of participants who simulate source code psychologically using NIRS4,5. NIRS is an suitable method especially for a program comprehension research in various devices to measure brain activity, because of high temporal resolution and low restriction on participant. Effects of each factors in program comprehension to brain activity is still unclear. To understand how programmers comprehend program source code, identifying the effect of each factor is required. We investigate the effects of each factors in source code from programmer’s brain activity. Variables and conditional branches are primary elements in source code, and essential factors in program comprehension. We measure participant’s brain activity during tasks that have them read code snippets, and compare measurements statistically
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
