An Exploration of Cognitive Shifting in Writing Code

Programming is considered a demanding task that requires focusing on detail at code level. Students learning to program need to learn to think like a programmer, which involves coming up with plans needed to solve problems, and they need to learn to write the code that corresponds to the plans that they have thought of. The use of multiple files creates additional overhead to the process, as part of the code is not visible to the student. If a student does not remember the contents of a particular file, she needs to consciously move from writing code in one file to reading code in another file. This conscious transition of attention from one location to another is known as cognitive shifting. Using key-level data collected from a programming exam, we analyze students' movements within files and between files, and relate these movements with students' performance in the course. Our results indicate that frequently moving from one file to another may lead to worse performance than more focused actions, but no such effect exists when analyzing movements within an individual file.