research-article

Investigating the Cognitive Load Drivers of Software Evolution Activities

Authors:

Patrick Belém,

Rafael De Mello,

Adriana S Vivacqua,

Adriano Neves De SouzaAuthors Info & Claims

SBES '23: Proceedings of the XXXVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering

Pages 342 - 347

https://doi.org/10.1145/3613372.3613377

Published: 25 September 2023 Publication History

Abstract

Cognitive load theory proposes a framework to characterize the mental effort employed by individuals in their tasks. To properly measure the cognitive load of a certain activity, it is important to know its drivers, which may vary according to the nature of this activity. We report, in this paper, initial results of an investigation of the cognitive load drivers of software evolution activities. After analyzing the content of semi-structured interviews conducted with members of a software maintenance team, we found a set of problems and difficulties they experience when evolving software systems. Based on this set, we mapped a preliminary version of cognitive load drivers of software evolution activities.

References

[1]

Jorge Luis Nicolas Audy. 2007. Desenvolvimento distribuído de software. Elsevier.

[2]

Brian P Bailey and Shamsi T Iqbal. 2008. Understanding changes in mental workload during execution of goal-directed tasks and its application for interruption management. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 14, 4 (2008), 1–28.

Digital Library

[3]

Tobias Baum, Kurt Schneider, and Alberto Bacchelli. 2019. Associating working memory capacity and code change ordering with code review performance. Empirical Software Engineering 24 (2019), 1762–1798.

Digital Library

[4]

Ned Chapin, Joanne E Hale, Khaled Md Khan, Juan F Ramil, and Wui-Gee Tan. 2001. Types of software evolution and software maintenance. Journal of software maintenance and evolution: Research and Practice 13, 1 (2001), 3–30.

[5]

Igor Crk, Timothy Kluthe, and Andreas Stefik. 2015. Understanding programming expertise: an empirical study of phasic brain wave changes. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 23, 1 (2015), 1–29.

Digital Library

[6]

Rafael de Mello, José Aldo da Costa, Benedito de Oliveira, Márcio Ribeiro, Baldoino Fonseca, Rohit Gheyi, Alessandro Garcia, and Willy Tiengo. 2021. Decoding Confusing Code: Social Representations among Developers. In 2021 IEEE/ACM 13th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE). 11–20. https://doi.org/10.1109/CHASE52884.2021.00010

[7]

Adriano de Souza, Fernanda dos Santos, Lidvaldo dos Santos, Patrick Belém, Sírius da Silva, Adriana Vivacqua, and Rafael de Mello. 2023. Investigando a Percepção de Feedback em Times de Desenvolvimento de Software: Um Estudo Inicial. In Anais do VIII Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software. SBC, 91–100.

[8]

Sarah Fakhoury, Yuzhan Ma, Venera Arnaoudova, and Olusola Adesope. 2018. The effect of poor source code lexicon and readability on developers’ cognitive load. In Proceedings of the 26th Conference on Program Comprehension. 286–296.

Digital Library

[9]

Lucian José Gonçales, Kleinner Farias, and Bruno C da Silva. 2021. Measuring the cognitive load of software developers: An extended Systematic Mapping Study. Information and Software Technology 136 (2021), 106563.

Digital Library

[10]

Daniel Helgesson, Emelie Engström, Per Runeson, and Elizabeth Bjarnason. 2019. Cognitive load drivers in large scale software development. In 2019 IEEE/ACM 12th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE). IEEE, 91–94.

Digital Library

[11]

Makrina Viola Kosti, Kostas Georgiadis, Dimitrios A Adamos, Nikos Laskaris, Diomidis Spinellis, and Lefteris Angelis. 2018. Towards an affordable brain computer interface for the assessment of programmers’ mental workload. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 115 (2018), 52–66.

[12]

Shannon L Marlow, Christina N Lacerenza, and Eduardo Salas. 2017. Communication in virtual teams: A conceptual framework and research agenda. Human resource management review 27, 4 (2017), 575–589.

[13]

Claudio Nascimento and Rafael de Mello. 2022. Investigating the Perception of Success in Software Projects Among Developers from a Brazilian Software Company. In Anais do XXV Congresso Ibero-Americano em Engenharia de Software. SBC, 173–187.

[14]

Fred GWC Paas and Jeroen JG Van Merriënboer. 1994. Instructional control of cognitive load in the training of complex cognitive tasks. Educational psychology review 6 (1994), 351–371.

[15]

Jherson Haryson A Pereira, Alberto Luiz Oliveira Tavares de Souza, and Victor Hugo Santiago C Pinto. 2021. Cognitive Load Analyzer: A Support Tool for Cognitive-Driven Development. In Proceedings of the XXXV Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering. 468–473.

Digital Library

[16]

Ita Richardson, Valentine Casey, John Burton, and Fergal McCaffery. 2010. Global software engineering: A software process approach. Collaborative software engineering (2010), 35–56.

[17]

Per Runeson, Martin Host, Austen Rainer, and Bjorn Regnell. 2012. Case study research in software engineering: Guidelines and examples. John Wiley & Sons.

Digital Library

[18]

Leonardo Sousa, Anderson Oliveira, Willian Oizumi, Simone Barbosa, Alessandro Garcia, Jaejoon Lee, Marcos Kalinowski, Rafael de Mello, Baldoino Fonseca, Roberto Oliveira, 2018. Identifying design problems in the source code: A grounded theory. In Proceedings of the 40th international conference on software engineering. 921–931.

Digital Library

[19]

John Sweller. 2011. Cognitive load theory. In Psychology of learning and motivation. Vol. 55. Elsevier, 37–76.

[20]

Robert K Yin. 2016. Pesquisa qualitativa do início ao fim. Penso Editora.

Cited By

Barroso BSilva LMello R(2024)Caracterizando Condutores de Carga Cognitiva na Prática de Testes UnitáriosAnais do IX Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software (WASHES 2024)10.5753/washes.2024.2676(70-81)Online publication date: 21-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.5753/washes.2024.2676
Belém PGlória JSouza ABarizon CDe Mello RVivacqua A(2024)A colaboração em reuniões remotas: uma análise sobre o uso da câmera e a produtividadeAnais do XIX Simpósio Brasileiro de Sistemas Colaborativos (SBSC 2024)10.5753/sbsc.2024.238072(124-137)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.5753/sbsc.2024.238072

Index Terms

Investigating the Cognitive Load Drivers of Software Evolution Activities
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software development techniques

Recommendations

Cognitive load drivers in large scale software development
CHASE '19: Proceedings of the 12th International Workshop on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering

Software engineers handle a lot of information in their daily work. We explore how software engineers interact with information management systems/tools, and to what extent these systems expose users to increased cognitive load. We reviewed the ...
Measuring the cognitive load of software developers: An extended Systematic Mapping Study
Abstract Context:
Cognitive load in software engineering refers to the mental effort users spend while reading software artifacts. The cognitive load can vary according to tasks and across developers. Researchers have measured ...
Measuring the cognitive load of software developers: a systematic mapping study
ICPC '19: Proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Program Comprehension

Context: In recent years, several studies explored different facets of the developers' cognitive load while executing tasks related to software engineering. Researchers have proposed and assessed different ways to measure developers' cognitive load at ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

SBES '23: Proceedings of the XXXVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering

September 2023

570 pages

ISBN:9798400707872

DOI:10.1145/3613372

Copyright © 2023 ACM.

Publication rights licensed to ACM. ACM acknowledges that this contribution was authored or co-authored by an employee, contractor or affiliate of a national government. As such, the Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to publish or reproduce this article, or to allow others to do so, for Government purposes only.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 25 September 2023

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article
Research
Refereed limited

Funding Sources

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES)

Conference

SBES 2023

SBES 2023: XXXVII Brazilian Symposium on Software Engineering

September 25 - 29, 2023

Campo Grande, Brazil

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 147 of 427 submissions, 34%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

2
Total Citations
View Citations
48
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)23
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)6

Reflects downloads up to 05 Mar 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Barroso BSilva LMello R(2024)Caracterizando Condutores de Carga Cognitiva na Prática de Testes UnitáriosAnais do IX Workshop sobre Aspectos Sociais, Humanos e Econômicos de Software (WASHES 2024)10.5753/washes.2024.2676(70-81)Online publication date: 21-Jul-2024
https://doi.org/10.5753/washes.2024.2676
Belém PGlória JSouza ABarizon CDe Mello RVivacqua A(2024)A colaboração em reuniões remotas: uma análise sobre o uso da câmera e a produtividadeAnais do XIX Simpósio Brasileiro de Sistemas Colaborativos (SBSC 2024)10.5753/sbsc.2024.238072(124-137)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.5753/sbsc.2024.238072

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

HTML Format

View this article in HTML Format.

Figures

Tables

Media

View Table of Conten