Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
skip to main content
research-article
Open access

10 Things Software Developers Should Learn about Learning

Published: 21 December 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Understanding how human memory and learning works, the differences between beginners and experts, and practical steps developers can take to improve their learning, training, and recruitment.

Supplementary Material

Supplement to "10 Things Software Developers Should Learn about Learning" by Brown et al., Communications of the ACM, Volume 67, Issue 1 (CACM 67:1). (TenThings_Supplemental.pdf)

References

[1]
Anderson, J.R. Cognitive Psychology and its Implications. Macmillan (2005).
[2]
Baddeley, A. Working memory. Science 255, 5044 (1992), 556--559.
[3]
Behroozi, M., Shirolkar, S., Barik, T., and Parnin, C. Does stress impact technical interview performance? In Proceedings of the 28th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conf. and Symp. on the Foundations of Software Engineering (2020), 481--492; https://bit.ly/3Sj3AHn
[4]
Bergersen, G.R. and Gustafsson, J.-E. Programming skill, knowledge, and working memory among professional software developers from an investment theory perspective. J. of Individual Differences 32, 4 (2011), 201.
[5]
Bjork, R.A. and Allen, T.W. The spacing effect: Consolidation or differential encoding? J. of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 9, 5 (1970), 567--572.
[6]
Bjork, R.A. and Bjork, E.L. Desirable difficulties in theory and practice. J. of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 9, 4 (2020), 475.
[7]
Bryant, A. In head-hunting, big data may not be such a big deal. The New York Times (June 2013); https://nyti.ms/3Msdraa.
[8]
Burgoyne, A.P., Hambrick, D.Z., and Macnamara, B.N. How firm are the foundations of mind-set theory? The claims appear stronger than the evidence. Psychological Science 31, 3 (2020), 258--267; https://bit.ly/3MsdPp4
[9]
Cheryan, S., Ziegler, S.A., Montoya, A.K., and Jiang, L. Why are some STEM fields more gender balanced than others? Psychological Bulletin 143, 1 (2017), 1.
[10]
Dempster, F.N. The spacing effect: A case study in the failure to apply the results of psychological research. American Psychologist 43, 8 (1988), 627.
[11]
Dong, G. and Potenza, M.N. Behavioural and brain responses related to Internet search and memory. European J. of Neuroscience 42, 8 (2015), 2546--2554; https://bit.ly/49loGL6
[12]
Dweck, C.S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House (2006).
[13]
Dweck, C.S. and Yeager, D.S. Mindsets: A view from two eras. Perspectives on Psychological Science 14, 3 (2019), 481--496.
[14]
Giebl, S. et al. Thinking first versus Googling first: Preferences and consequences. J. of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (2022); https://bit.ly/3QlXun5
[15]
Gobet, F. and Simon, H.A. The roles of recognition processes and look-ahead search in time-constrained expert problem solving: Evidence from grand-master-level chess. Psychological Science 7, 1 (1996), 52--55; https://bit.ly/40oT4jY
[16]
Grabarczyk, P., Nicolajsen, S.M., and Brabrand, C. On the effect of onboarding computing students without programming-confidence or experience. In Proceedings of the 22nd Koli Calling Intern. Conf. on Computing Education Research (2022), 1--8.
[17]
Hazzan, O. Reducing abstraction level when learning abstract algebra concepts. Educational Studies in Mathematics 40, 1 (Sept. 1999), 71--90; https://bit.ly/49lZd4f
[18]
Huberman, A. Teach & learn better with a "neuroplasticity super protocol". Neural Network (Oct. 2021).
[19]
Kahneman, D. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Macmillan, 2011.
[20]
Kirschner, P.A. and Hendrick, C. How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice. Routledge (2020).
[21]
Kleitman, N. Basic rest-activity cycle---22 years later. Sleep 5, 4 (1982), 311--317.
[22]
Kyllonen, P.C. and Christal, R.E. Reasoning ability is (little more than) working-memory capacity?! Intelligence 14, 4 (1990), 389--433.
[23]
Margulieux, L. et al. When wrong is right: The instructional power of multiple conceptions. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conf. on Intern. Computing Education Research (2021), 184--197.
[24]
Margulieux, L.E. Spatial encoding strategy theory: The relationship between spatial skill and STEM achievement. In Proceedings of the 2019 ACM Conf. on Intern. Computing Education Research, 81--90
[25]
Maton, K. Making semantic waves: A key to cumulative knowledge-building. Linguistics and Education 24, 1 (2013), 8--22; https://bit.ly/3tXhvZt.
[26]
McCartney, R. et al. Folk pedagogy and the geek gene: geekiness quotient. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symp. on Computer Science Education (2017), 405--410.
[27]
Morrison, P. and Murphy-Hill, E. Is programming knowledge related to age? An exploration of stack overflow. In 2013 10th Working Conf. on Mining Software Repositories (MSR), 69--72; https://bit.ly/3Sp5Mgv.
[28]
Newton, P.M. and Salvi, A. How common is belief in the learning styles neuromyth, and does it matter? A pragmatic systematic review. Frontiers in Education (2020), 5; https://bit.ly/47h0Jmo.
[29]
Owen, A.M. et al. Putting brain training to the test. Nature 465, 7299 (2010), 775--778.
[30]
Parkinson, J. and Cutts, Q. Relationships between an early-stage spatial skills test and final CS degree outcomes. In Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symp. on Computer Science Education 1, (2022), 293--299
[31]
Peitek, N. et al. Correlates of programmer efficacy and their link to experience: A combined EEG and eye-tracking study. In Proceedings of the 30th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conf. and Symp. on the Foundations of Software Engineering (Nov. 2022), 120--131.
[32]
Raufaste, E., Eyrolle, H., and Mariné, C. Pertinence generation in radiological diagnosis: Spreading activation and the nature of expertise. Cognitive Science 22, 4 (1998), 517--546; https://bit.ly/3sidUoq
[33]
Robins, A. Learning edge momentum: A new account of outcomes in CS1. Computer Science Education 20, 1 (2010), 37--71.
[34]
Robins, A.V. Dual process theories: Computing cognition in context. ACM Trans. Comput. Education 22, 4 (Sept. 2022)
[35]
Rountree, N., Rountree, J., Robins, A., and Hannah, R. Interacting factors that predict success and failure in a CS1 course. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin 36, 4 (2004), 101--104.
[36]
Sala, G. and Gobet, F. Does far transfer exist? Negative evidence from chess, music, and working memory training. Current Directions in Psychological Science 26, 6 (2017), 515--520
[37]
Simons, D.J. and Chabris, C.F. What people believe about how memory works: A representative survey of the U.S. population. PLOS ONE 6, 8 (Aug. 2011), 1--7
[38]
Thalmann, M., Souza, A.S., and Oberauer, K. How does chunking help working memory? J. of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 45, 1 (2019), 37.
[39]
Tshukudu, E. and Cutts, Q. Understanding conceptual transfer for students learning new programming languages. In Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Conf. on Intern. Computing Education Research, 227--237
[40]
Uttal, D.H. et al. The malleability of spatial skills: A meta-analysis of training studies. Psychological Bulletin 139, 2 (2013), 352.

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image Communications of the ACM
Communications of the ACM  Volume 67, Issue 1
January 2024
122 pages
EISSN:1557-7317
DOI:10.1145/3638509
  • Editor:
  • James Larus
Issue’s Table of Contents
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial International 4.0 License.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 21 December 2023
Published in CACM Volume 67, Issue 1

Check for updates

Qualifiers

  • Research-article

Funding Sources

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • 0
    Total Citations
  • 151,618
    Total Downloads
  • Downloads (Last 12 months)151,618
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)3,278
Reflects downloads up to 04 Oct 2024

Other Metrics

Citations

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Digital Edition

View this article in digital edition.

Digital Edition

Magazine Site

View this article on the magazine site (external)

Magazine Site

Get Access

Login options

Full Access

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media