Abstract
Studies are currently being initiated to examine the use of techniques based in cognitive psychology to make the knowledge employed by experts easier to obtain and quicker to put into practical application (Ledgard, 1980). Attempts have also been made to establish formal theories about the composition of an expert's knowledge network (Friedman, 1974; Dijkstra, 1976; Wirth, 1977; Soloway, Bonar, Woolf, Barth, Rubin and Ehrlich, 1981), but most of these attempts were based on conjecture with little experimental validation.
The present study attempted to examine these questions with respect to appropriate looping constructs. By employing the same procedures introduced by Soloway, et al. (1981), novice and expert programmers were tested using PL/I. The results of this endeavor provide information to be used in evaluating the actual knowledge possessed by experts and the relationship of this knowledge to the net advocated by Soloway, et al. (1981).
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.