University of Sussex
Browse
switchdeb.pdf (930.72 kB)

Visual attention and representation switching during Java program debugging: a study using the restricted focus viewer

Download (930.72 kB)
chapter
posted on 2023-06-07, 13:24 authored by Pablo Romero, Richard Cox, Benedict du Boulay, Rudi Lutz
Java program debugging was investigated in programmers who used a software debugging environment (SDE) that provided concurrently displayed, adjacent, multiple and linked representations consisting of the program code, a functional visualisation of the program, and its output. A modified version of the Restricted Focus Viewer (RFV)[#!bla:00!#] - a visual attention tracking system - was employed to measure the degree to which each of the representations was used, and to record switches between representations. Other measures included debugging performance (number of bugs identified, the order in which they were identified, bug discovery latencies, etc.). The aim of this investigation was to address questions such as `To what extent do programmers use each type of representation?' and `Are particular patterns of representational use associated with superior debugging performance?'. A within-subject design, and comparison of performance under (matched) RFV/no-RFV task conditions, allowed the use of the RFV as an attention-tracking tool to be validated in the programming domain. The results also provide tentative evidence that superior debugging using multiple-representation SDE's tends to be associated with a) the predominant use of the program code representation, and b) frequent switches between the code representation and the visualisation of the program execution.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Publisher

Springer-Verlag

Volume

2317/2

Page range

221-235

Pages

14.0

Book title

Diagrammatic Representation and Inference : Second International Conference, Diagrams 2002 Callaway Gardens, GA, USA, April 18-20, 2002. Proceedings

Place of publication

Berlin / Heidelberg

ISBN

9783540435617

Series

Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence

Department affiliated with

  • Informatics Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2006-10-26

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC