Process frame: A cognitive device for recursion comprehension

Abstract

In the literature, a distinction is often made between the concept of recursion and its implementation, using analogies and models for explaining both. Some models of recursion and pedagogical methods of explaining recursion to beginners of computer programming classes are found to be inadequate, ineffective, defective, and even dangerously misleading. This paper reports a cognitive device, called process frame, and illustrates in great detail how to use it to explain recursion and recursive process structures. The strength of this cognitive device is that it can explain both a concept of recursion and its implementation correctly with clarity. It has been used in numerous programming classes successfully.