PROCEEDINGS of the HUMAN FACTORS SOCIETY-28th ANNUAL MEETlNG-7984 Evaluation of Three Testing Methods Used to Determine Cognitive Constructs in Computer Programming

(1980) tried to predict students ' per-formance in a programming course by looking at the number of semantic struc-tures reconstructed rather than number of lines of code perfectly recalled. Atwood and Ramsey (1977) offer Memorization has been an often-used technique for testing cognitive con-further evidence that programmers store information according to some previously learned pattern rather than in the syn-tactic form in which it is received. In st.ruct; organization by programmers. their study, subjects recalled previ-this study looks at three different memorization techniques and introduces a new method for examination of syntax and logical constructs. ously memorized programs in a form that was functionally rather than syntacti-cally equivalent. Finally, McKeithen and Reitman et. al (1981) attempted to determined th