A Study on the Interplay of Cognition in Computer Programming and Code Inspection Skills in an Academic Environment

Abstract

This study examined the interplay of cognition in code inspection and programming skills among software developers. It has been observed that the style of programming employed differs from one programmer to another even when solving the same problem. Also, large variations in individual performance in software development have been observed. Some form of innate programming ability might account for some of the differences. The cognitive styles of the participants were determined using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tool, their programming skills were assessed by giving them programming task to do and the code inspection skill was also assessed by giving them a programming code seeded with logical errors for them to debug. The performances of the participants were mapped against their cognitive styles to see if there is any form of relationship among the three variables. It was obtained from the experiment that the participants with the cognitive style ESFJ have a strong positive correlation between programming and code inspection skills compared with other cognitive styles though statistical tests result showed that all the cognitive styles performed at the same level.