Abstract
In the past decade, brain and autonomic nervous system activity measurement received increasing attention in the study of software engineering (SE). This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) to survey the existing NeuroSE literature. Based on a rigorous search protocol, we identified 89 papers (hereafter denoted as NeuroSE papers). We analyzed these papers to develop a comprehensive understanding of who had published NeuroSE research and classified the contributions according to their type. The 47 articles presenting completed empirical research were analyzed in detail. The SLR revealed that the number of authors publishing NeuroSE research is still relatively small. The thematic focus so far has been on code comprehension, while code inspection, programming, and bug fixing have been less frequently studied. NeuroSE publications primarily used methods related to brain activity measurement (particularly fMRI and EEG), while methods related to the measurement of autonomic nervous system activity (e.g., pupil dilation, heart rate, skin conductance) received less attention. We also present details of how the empirical research was conducted, including stimuli and independent and dependent variables, and discuss implications for future research. The body of NeuroSE literature is still small. Yet, high quality contributions exist constituting a valuable basis for future studies.
Highlights
We use the term NeuroSE to describe a research field in software engineering (SE) that makes use of neurophysiological methods and knowledge to better understand the software development process, as well as its outcome, the software system
Based on the analysis of N = 89 NeuroSE publications, we identified 191 different authors
Neurophysiological measurements can contribute to the field of software engineering in several ways: (1) Neurophysiological measurements can contribute to enhancing our understanding of human factors in software engineering
Summary
We use the term NeuroSE to describe a research field in software engineering (SE) that makes use of neurophysiological methods and knowledge to better understand the software development process, as well as its outcome, the software system. Review work recently published by Riedl et al (2017b, 2020a) investigated studies using neurophysiological methods in the field of Information Systems (referred to as NeuroIS). The ANS, by contrast, consists of the sympathetic division (which activates the body), the parasympathetic division (which relaxes the body) and the enteric nervous system (which governs the function of the gastrointestinal tract) Based on this overview of the human nervous system, it becomes clear that the brain (i.e., the information processing unit), as well as the sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the ANS (which keep the body in balance, referred to as homeostasis), are the major units of analysis in NeuroSE research (Mack et al, 2013; Riedl and Léger, 2016). At least 2 years programming experience; knowledge in C# Undergraduate students who finished first programming lecture before experiment At least 3 years of C experience Undergraduate programming and Java experience At least basic programming courses (covering data structures and Java) 3rd year students in computer science PhD students with a major in CS
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