Comparison Experiment of Learning State Between Visual Programming Language and Text Programming Language

Abstract

Recently, visual programming languages such as Scratch have been popular among novice programmers. Afterward, they employ text-based programming languages such as C and Java. Nevertheless, there are significant barriers between visual and text-based languages. Thus, it is important to establish a seamless transition from visual to text-based languages. In this study, we clarify the difference in the learning process between visual language and text-based language by measuring brain waves. Specifically, experiments will be conducted to solve problems with various difficulty levels for learning visual and text-based languages. The brain waves will be measured, and the values of β/α will be evaluated. Results show that the values of β/α when solving difficult problems increased in the text-based language, but not in the visual language. This suggests that beginners may be thinking differently in the learning process of visual and text-based languages.