Publication statistics
Pub. period:1983-2012
Pub. count:31
Number of co-authors:67
Co-authors
Number of publications with 3 favourite co-authors:
David M. Cades:4Nicole E. Werner:4Robert W. Holt:3 Productive colleagues
Deborah A. Boehm-Davis's 3 most productive colleagues in number of publications:
Wendy A. Rogers:52Wayne D. Gray:44Florian Jentsch:33
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Deborah A. Boehm-Davis
Has also published under the name of:
"Deborah Boehm-Davis"
Personal Homepage:
psychology.gmu.edu/people/dbdavisPublications by Deborah A. Boehm-Davis (bibliography)
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Blickensderfer, Beth, Boehm-Davis, Deborah A., Hancock, Peter, Parasuraman, Raja, Rogers, Wendy A. and Smith, Michael J. (2012): Fitts Education Award Winners: Teaching Human Factors and Ergonomics. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2012 Annual Meeting 2012. pp. 566-570.
“Every day, current Human Factors&Ergonomics (HF/E) professionals work to foster the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for their students to be future HF/E professionals. Experienced HF/E educators possess a wealth of knowledge of what works in regards to teaching their particular topics. Unfortunately, this valuable in-domain teaching knowledge and expertise often does not get disseminated to other HF/E educators. The purpose of the current panel is to provide a forum for professionals, who have been recognized for teaching excellence, to share their ideas and approaches with other educators. The panelists are recent winners of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's Paul M. Fitts Education Award, an award that recognizes individuals for outstanding contributions to HF/E education. The discussion will focus on three themes: strategies to integrate practical problems into the education process, suggestions for improving instructional effectiveness via mentoring skills, and HF/E teaching challenges.”
© All rights reserved Blickensderfer et al. and/or Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
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Werner, Nicole E., Nelson, Erik, Miller, William D. and Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. (2012): Interruptions in the Real World: Examining the Role of Internal Versus External Interruptions in a Hospital Pharmacy. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2012 Annual Meeting 2012. pp. 819-823.
“Interruptions are a common cause of errors in the pharmacy, cited as being responsible for as much as 43% of the error that occurs in medication administration. The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of interruptions in a hospital pharmacy setting and to determine the extent to which existing theories of interruptions can account for our findings. As a central feature of this work, we chose to examine a characteristic of interruptions seldom examined in laboratory studies, which is the source of the interruption. The findings from this study begin to suggest that the theories developed to explain the cognitive mechanisms by which people resume from interruptions do apply to the pharmacy setting. Further, the data suggest that preservation of the system state has a protective effect on performance.”
© All rights reserved Werner et al. and/or Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
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Baker, Kelley M., DiMare, Sara K., Nelson, Erik T. and Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. (2012): Effect of Data Communications on Pilot Situation Awareness, Decision Making, and Workload. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2012 Annual Meeting 2012. pp. 1787-1788.
“Over the next decade, the demand for air transportation and other airspace services is expected to grow significantly. To address this, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is developing the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), which is a series of transformations designed to increase the capacity, safety, and security of air traffic operations. One major enabling technology being investigated is data communications (data comm), which is an electronic text-based message-transferring system between aircraft and ground stations. The literature on data communications outlines both potential benefits and costs. On the benefits side, subject matter experts and researchers have suggested that the switch to text-based communications will lead to reduced distractions and workload (Hoogeboom, Joosse, Hodgetts, Straussberger,&Schaefer, 2004; Navarro&Sikorski, 1999). In addition, data communication is thought to be more accurate and concise (Kerns, 1991; Prinzo, 2001). On the costs side, pilots have reported their belief that loss of information gained through the party line leads to a loss of situation awareness (Prinzo&Campbell, 2008; Hodgetts et al., 2005). Pilots seem particularly concerned with the loss of party line information related to weather, traffic, and holding situations (Pritchett&Hansman, 1997; Pritchett, Midkiff,&Hansman, 1995) and with the loss of information during the busier phases of flight near the airport (Pritchett et al., 1995). However, Boehm-Davis, Gee, Baker, and Medina-Mora (2010) found that while some information presented over the party line is important to pilots' situation awareness, it may be possible to mitigate the loss of the party line by providing supplemental information with data comm. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of data communications on pilot situation awareness, decision making, and workload. This study built upon a previous study by Boehm-Davis, et al. (2010), which examined party line loss and mitigation strategies. In this study, a two-pilot crew was asked to fly two 40-minute flight scenarios using a low fidelity desktop computer-based flight simulator. The independent variable was communication modality, which was a within-subjects variable. Participants flew one scenario with all communication with air traffic control handled via auditory communication channels. In this condition, they were able to overhear party line communications between other aircraft and ATC. Participants flew the other scenario with all communication with ATC handled via data communications. In this condition, the pilots received clearances from ATC via data comm, and also received data comm messages regarding flight events. Situation awareness and workload were assessed during the flight using the Situation Present Assessment Method (SPAM) (Durso&Dattel, 2004). In this method, participants are interrupted from their primary task with queries about their situation. Accuracy and response time are used as measures of their situation awareness and workload. Subjective workload was measured at the end of each flight, using the NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) (Hart&Staveland, 1988). Pilot decision making was also assessed. Throughout the experiments, a former airline pilot observed the participants and assessed their awareness, planning, decision making, and actions in response to specific flight events. No significant differences were found for the SPAM workload or situation awareness times or in the number of correct responses to the SPAM situation awareness questions. Likewise, there was no significant difference in subjective workload between conditions, as measured with the NASA-TLX. When presented with specific flight events, participants showed slightly greater awareness, discussion, and action in the data comm condition than in the voice condition. However, this difference was not significant. In addition, pilots were less likely to seek information from ATC in the data comm condition, which could potentially reduce workload for controllers. Although this study did not yield many statistically significant results, the findings imply that there may not be a loss of situation awareness, degradation of decision making, or increase in workload when using data comm instead of voice communications, especially with a well-designed data comm interface, sufficient training, and clear procedures.”
© All rights reserved Baker et al. and/or Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
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Werner, Nicole E., Cades, David M., Boehm-Davis, Deborah A., Chang, Jessica, Khan, Hibah and Thi, Gia (2011): What Makes Us Resilient to Interruptions? Understanding the Role of Individual Differences in Resumption. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 55th Annual Meeting 2011. pp. 296-300.
“Interruptions are an inescapable reality in our lives and they sometimes lead to unfortunate consequences. Most of the interruptions literature focuses on aspects of the interruption task that makes them more or less disruptive to performance. However, it is important to consider what might make a person resilient to the deleterious effects of interruptions. This research seeks to explore the individual performer and the specific cognitive aspects that might make someone better or worse at dealing with an interruption. Based on the current theory, we predicted that participants with better working memory capacity and spatial abilities would be faster at resuming an interrupted task than those who scored lower on those measures. We found that those that scored higher on the working memory capacity measure were faster at resuming from an interruption and those that scored higher on one of the spatial ability measures (mental rotation) were faster at resuming. The paper folding task measure of spatial ability did not predict interrupted task performance.”
© All rights reserved Werner et al. and/or HFES
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Rivera, Javier, Gee, Sara K., Curtis, Michael, Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Jentsch, Florian (2011): The Visual Approach: Evaluating the Relative Impact of Perceptual and Conceptual Training. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 55th Annual Meeting 2011. pp. 1552-1553.
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A., Gee, Sara K., Baker, Kelley and Medina-Mora, Maricel (2010): Effect of Party Line Loss and Delivery Format on Crew Performance and Workload. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 54th Annual Meeting 2010. pp. 126-130.
“This experiment sought to gain insight into the potential loss of situational awareness that could arise from the switch from radio-based verbal communications between pilots and controllers to the delivery of non-time-critical information through data communications (Data Comm). Specifically, this study examined the effect that loss of the party line and changes to the delivery format for clearances and other flight-relevant information had on pilot situational awareness and workload. Data suggest that both the loss of the party line and the use of Data Comm as a delivery mechanism for clearances affected performance and workload.”
© All rights reserved Boehm-Davis et al. and/or HFES
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Cades, David M., Werner, Nicole E., Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Arshad, Zara (2010): What makes Real-World Interruptions Disruptive Evidence from an Office Setting. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 54th Annual Meeting 2010. pp. 448-452.
“With the constant barrage of cell phone calls, emails, instant messages, calendar reminders, and more, interruptions have become a common and consistent occurrence in our daily lives. The majority of the literature on interruptions to date has been based on controlled laboratory experiments and it is not yet completely clear how these results will translate into naturalistic settings and/or if there are certain features of interruptions and resumption that are not observable in the controlled setting. The current study is an exploratory study of how interruptions manifest in the naturalistic environment. We found that when working on computer-based tasks in real-world environments, external interruptions are more disruptive than internal interruptions. However, no reliable difference was shown in resumption time when resuming from multiple interruptions as opposed to single interruptions, and when resuming a different task as opposed to resuming the same task that was interrupted.”
© All rights reserved Cades et al. and/or HFES
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Cades, David M., Kidd, David G., King, Eden B., McKnight, Patrick E. and Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. (2010): Factors Affecting Interrupted Task Performance: Effects of Adaptability, Impulsivity and Intelligence. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 54th Annual Meeting 2010. pp. 458-462.
“Interruptions are a disruptive force in both our professional and personal lives. In order to develop the most comprehensive mitigation strategies, it is essential to gain insight into what factors affect the disruptiveness of interruptions. Although a significant body of research has approached this problem from the systems and tasks sides, the role of specific cognitive traits affecting interrupted task performance has been largely overlooked. In this study, participants completed measures of intelligence, adaptability, and impulsivity-reflexivity in an effort to determine whether these traits influence interrupted task performance. Intelligence scores were found to predict primary task latency, secondary task accuracy and the ability to resume the primary task following an interruption.”
© All rights reserved Cades et al. and/or HFES
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Brill, J. Christopher, Andre, Anthony D., Beith, Barry, Boehm-Davis, Deborah A., Gawron, Valerie J. and Mayhorn, Christopher B. (2010): The Future of Human Factors Education: Practices and Needs from the Perspectives of Academia, Government, and Industry. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 54th Annual Meeting 2010. pp. 652-656.
“This paper is intended to reflect the thoughts and opinions of panel discussants on the status and future of formal education in human factors and ergonomics. Major themes include the need for students to develop analytic abilities within the context of the scientist-practitioner model and the continued splintering within the field of Human Factors/Ergonomics (HF/E) by area of practice. Suggestions for meeting market demands include developing increasingly flexible curricula while encouraging students gain domain-specific knowledge and skills. Others support the "tried and true" scientist-practitioner model.”
© All rights reserved Brill et al. and/or HFES
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Werner, Nicole E., Cades, David M., Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Peterson, Matthew S. (2009): Resuming after Interruption: Exploring the roles of spatial and goal memory. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 53rd Annual Meeting 2009. pp. 399-403.
“Interruptions research has generally focused on the factors that make interruptions more or less disruptive to primary task performance, the ways in which people engage the interruption as they disengage from a primary task, and the role of environmental context/cues in primary task resumption. However, little research has focused on investigating the processes by which a person reorients to and resumes the primary task following an interruption. This research explores the potential roles of spatial location and goal memory in the process of resumption. The experiment reported uses a new paradigm in which, following an interruption, a person can be returned to a different task and/or a different location. We found that both goal memory and spatial memory play a role in resuming the primary task following an interruption. However, there is still not a clear picture of how the two interact, and it may be that individual differences play an important role in how people deal with interruptions.”
© All rights reserved Werner et al. and/or their publisher
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. (1998): The CHI 98 Doctoral Consortium. In ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 30 (4) pp. 60-61.
“The Doctoral Consortium (DC) is a pre-conference event sponsored by SIGCHI. The DC is a closed session that provides an opportunity for doctoral students to explore their research interests in an interdisciplinary workshop with established researchers in a group setting. The participants receive feedback on current research and guidance for future research directions. The consortium also aims toward the development of a supportive community of scholars while contributing to the conference goals through interaction with other researchers and participation in conference events. Consortium participants are invited based on their dissertation proposals, and reflect the wide range of disciplines within HCI research. The selection of participants is based primarily on the quality of their dissertation proposal (as described in their submission to the DC) and on the extent to which the dissertation represents the study of an HCI issue. Consideration is also given to representing students at different stages of the dissertation process, with a preference for students who have just had their proposal approved.”
© All rights reserved Boehm-Davis and/or ACM Press
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Gray, Wayne D., Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Spohrer, James C. (eds.) Empirical Studies of Programmers - Sixth Workshop January 5-7, 1996, 1996, Alexandria, Virginia.
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A., Fox, Jean E. and Philips, Brian H. (1996): Techniques for Exploring Program Comprehension. In: Gray, Wayne D., Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Spohrer, James C. (eds.) Empirical Studies of Programmers - Sixth Workshop January 5-7, 1996, 1996, Alexandria, Virginia. pp. 3-38.
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Gray, Wayne D. (1996): ESP6 (or, Snowbound during the great storm of '96): 6th Workshop on Empirical Studies of Programmers, Alexandria, Virginia, USA, Jan 5-7. In ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 28 (3) pp. 42-43.
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Mahach, Karen R., Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Holt, Robert W. (1995): The Effects of Mice and Pull-Down Menus versus Command-Driven Interfaces on Writing. In International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 7 (3) pp. 213-234.
“The effects of two different computer user interfaces on the process of writing are examined. English composition students (matched on computer experience) used a computer and keyboard (either with function keys or with a mouse) to write essays during their English classes. Essays generated using either a mouse or command-driven interface were compared across different stages of writing. The impact of using a mouse versus command-driven interface is described by analyzing the differences in the process used to create the essays and the quality of the essays produced by each group. Results indicate that students who used the command-driven interface scored better on organization of the paper, creativity, number of supporting arguments, grammar/spelling, and letter grade than did their mouse counterparts, as perceived by graders. However, there were no significant differences between the two interface conditions on any grammatical indices.”
© All rights reserved Mahach et al. and/or Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
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Bohan, Jennifer A., Marshall, Rafael, Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Schmidt-Nielsen, Astrid (1995): The Role of Individual Differences in Determining Interaction Strategies and Performance on Computer Based Tasks. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting 1995. pp. 248-252.
“In completing any given task, whether it be driving or a computer task, individuals have a wide array of strategies available to them. Investigations of computer tasks have shown that individual differences of cognitive styles and abilities are related to the types of strategies individuals use to complete the task (Schmidt-Nielsen and Ackerman, 1993). Typically, those who have higher reasoning abilities use more sophisticated strategies for performing the task than those with a lower level of ability. Further, it has been demonstrated that these strategies tend to hold over a variety of tasks. For example, performance on a computer graphing task was shown to be correlated to cognitive reasoning ability. The current study extended the work of Schmidt-Nielsen and Ackerman and found that there were a wide variety of performance strategies and these strategies were correlated with reasoning ability, field dependency, and performance on the noun pair task.”
© All rights reserved Bohan et al. and/or Human Factors Society
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. (1995): President's Forum: Using the Real World as a Metaphor in User Interface Design. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 39th Annual Meeting 1995. .
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. (1994): A Look at the HFES Mission through the Years. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 38th Annual Meeting 1994. .
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Peters, Robert D., Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Fertig, Joanne B. (1994): Decision-Making Performance and Decision Aid Usage under Controllable and Uncontrollable Stress. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 38th Annual Meeting 1994. p. 979.
“Previous animal research has shown that stress that is perceived to be out of the organism's control causes different physiologic changes and leads to more detrimental effects on performance than stress that is perceived to be under at least partial control. With humans, differential physiologic changes and greater decrements in certain cognitive tasks have resulted from exposure to uncontrollable versus controllable stress. The current study examined the effects of controllability of stress on decision-making performance. Unpredictable bursts of loud noise were used as the stressor. It was hypothesized that uncontrollable stress would have greater negative effects on mood and decision-making performance than controllable stress. In addition, it was hypothesized that the stress groups would make differential use of a computerized decision aid and that availability of the aid would lead to better decision-making performance than a no aid group. A 3 (uncontrollable, controllable, or no stress) by 2 (decision aid or no aid) mixed factorial design with repeated measures of decision-making performance was used to test these hypotheses. Results confirmed the experimental hypotheses regarding stress. Significant differences were found between the controllable and uncontrollable stress groups with regard to 1) mood changes (i.e., uncontrollable stress subjects showed increases in fear and anger and a decrease in happiness, while mood for the controllable stress subjects remained relatively stable) and 2) the decision-making process (i.e., uncontrollable stress subjects were less systematic and consequently less accurate than controllable stress subjects). Contrary to expectations, type of stress did not differentially affect decision aid usage. Having a decision aid available, however, did positively affect mood and decision-making performance.”
© All rights reserved Peters et al. and/or Human Factors Society
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Hartson, H. Rex and Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. (1993): User Interface Development Processes and Methodologies. In Behaviour and Information Technology, 12 (2) pp. 98-114.
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Pearson, Richard G., Koonce, Jefferson M., Rockwell, Thomas H., Ayoub, M. M., Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Meister, David (1993): Human Factors/Ergonomics Education -- A Time for Reformation?. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 37th Annual Meeting 1993. pp. 472-473.
“Hearing the term "reformation" can lead one to free associate to a number of words and phrases: a movement characterized by rejection of doctrine, or by change in practice; dissatisfaction with the "old"; establishment of a new order; revolution; risk and courage. Is it time for a reformation movement in human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) education? Stated more explicitly, is it time to establish separate degree-granting programs in HF/E at the graduate level? This panel has been organized to discuss, and debate, this question.”
© All rights reserved Pearson et al. and/or Human Factors Society
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Walker, Jonathan, Sedney, Catherine, Wochinger, Kathryn, Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Perez, William A. (1993): Age Differences in the Useful Field of View in a Part-Task Driving Simulator. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 37th Annual Meeting 1993. pp. 960-963.
“This study investigated age-related differences in the useful field of view (UFOV) using a part-task driving simulator. Thirty-six licensed drivers, aged 20-25, 40-45, and 65-70, participated. Dynamic roadway images were projected on screens to the front and sides of the driver. Target stimuli consisted of full-size simplified images of a van moving forward on the side screens at a speed below the motion threshold. Subjects performed forward view tracking and cognitive tasks while responding to the van stimuli on the side screens. Increased levels of the forward view task load adversely affected response times to the vans for the older group only, but performance of the tracking task declined for all age groups with increased load.”
© All rights reserved Walker et al. and/or Human Factors Society
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Ross, Lyle S. (1992): Program Design Methodologies and the Software Development Process. In International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 36 (1) pp. 1-19.
“This research examined program design methodologies which claim to improve the design process by providing strategies to programmers for structuring solutions to computer problems. In this experiment, professional programmers were provided with the specifications for each of three non-trivial problems and asked to produce pseudo-code for each specification according to the principles of a particular design methodology. The measures collected were the time to design and code, percent complete, and complexity, as measured by several metrics. These data were used to develop profiles of the solutions produced by different methodologies and to develop comparisons among the various methodologies. These differences are discussed in light of their impact on the comprehensibility, reliability, and maintainability of the programs produced.”
© All rights reserved Boehm-Davis and Ross and/or Academic Press
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A., Holt, Robert W. and Schultz, Alan C. (1992): The Role of Program Structure in Software Maintenance. In International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 36 (1) pp. 21-63.
“A number of claims have been made by the developers of program design methodologies, including the claim that the code produced by following the methodologies will be more understandable and more easily maintained than code produced in other ways. However, there has been little empirical research to test these claims. In this study, student and professional programmers were asked to make either simple or complex modifications to programs that had been generated using each of three different program structures. Data on the programmers' modification performance, cognitive representations formed of the programs and subjective reactions to the programs suggested that problem structure (as created by the different methodologies), problem content, complexity of modification, and programmer experience all play a crucial role in determining performance and the representation formed.”
© All rights reserved Boehm-Davis et al. and/or Academic Press
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Mast, Truman M. (1992): Human Factors and Commercial Vehicle Operations. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 36th Annual Meeting 1992. pp. 1078-1081.
“The Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO) segment of the IVHS program is targeted at users of interstate trucks, local delivery vans, buses, taxis, and emergency vehicles. Specifically, the goals of the CVO program are to improve (a) the efficiency and effectiveness of traffic management and regulatory administration by government; (b) the efficiency and effectiveness of fleet management; (c) safety for operators of commercial vehicles and others affected by them; and (d) driver performance. Although a number of technologies have been developed to support these goals, the human factors aspects of these systems have not been examined.”
© All rights reserved Boehm-Davis and Mast and/or Human Factors Society
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Peters, Robert D., Yastrop, Gloria T. and Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. (1988): Predicting Information Retrieval Performance. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting 1988. pp. 301-305.
“This research examined the effects two different cognitive individual differences (perceptual speed and spatial scanning) on information retrieval performance under two matched and two mismatched database format/query conditions. A graphic and a tabular form of an airline database were constructed, along with questions that required users to search through the database to determine the correct response. Two types of questions were designed -- graphic and tabular. The data indicate that users are faster when the format of the information in the database matches the type of information needed to predictive of performance in the matched and mismatched conditions. Recommendations for database design are presented.”
© All rights reserved Peters et al. and/or Human Factors Society
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Petrun, Craig J., Roop, Elizabeth, Boehm-Davis, Deborah A., Smith, Philip J. and Brown, Polly (1988): The Development of User-Computer Interfaces for Remote Access Data Bases. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 32nd Annual Meeting 1988. pp. 375-376.
“The recent surge in popularity of accessing on-line data bases from home terminals or PCs has drawn our attention to the limitations of today's remote access user interface technology. Although the type and complexity of on-line data bases continues to expand, there has not been an increase in emphasis on the development of a user-friendly interface to make remote data base accessing more usable. As a result, usage of these systems has gradually shifted to primarily professional information specialists and librarians. In order to open the access of these data bases to more non-technical users, we will need to integrate the various areas of human factors research which have already been involved in the design and implementation of on-line information systems. For example, research is currently being conducted in several areas related to on-line data base access, such as: 1) the impact of the data base format on retrieval, 2) consumer decision processes and information selection, 3) natural language interfaces, 4) the use of hypertext interfaces, and 5) on-line documentation aids. The focus of the present panel discussion is to provide a forum for integrating the results and ideas of several functionally related research areas in order to suggest future enhancements and design directions for future on-line data base access interfaces.”
© All rights reserved Petrun et al. and/or Human Factors Society
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Holt, Robert W., Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Schultz, Alan C. (1987): Mental Representations of Programs for Student and Professional Programmers. In: Olson, Gary M., Sheppard, Sylvia B. and Soloway, Elliot (eds.) Empirical Studies of Programmers - Second Workshop December 7-8 1987, 1987, Washington, DC. pp. 33-46.
“This research examined programmers' cognitive representations of software. In this study, student and professional programmers were asked to make either simple or complex modifications to three different programs that had been generated using each of three different design methodologies: in-line code, functional decomposition, and a form of object-oriented design. The programmers' mental models of the programs they had studied were elicited and then scored in several different ways. The results suggest that problem structure, problem type, and ease of modification may affect the mental models formed. Specifically, the data suggest that while the mental models of professional programmers were affected primarily by modification difficulty, the mental models of student programmers were primarily affected by the structure and content of the programs. Performance differences between the two groups of programmers were small because the experience variables which were most strongly related to performance were nearly equal in the two groups, and the experience variables which were very different between the two groups were not related to performance. Across the two groups, the primary aspect of the mental model which was correlated with performance variables was the width or breadth of the mental model structure. The implications of the results for the application of program design methodologies are discussed.”
© All rights reserved Holt et al. and/or Ablex Publishing
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A., Sheppard, Sylvia B. and Bailey, John W. (1987): Program Design Languages: How Much Detail Should They Include?. In International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 27 (4) pp. 337-347.
“This experiment evaluated the effectiveness of using a program design language (PDL) specifically designed to aid in coding a corresponding programming language. PDLs were designed to reflect the constructs and level of detail of three particular programming languages (i.e. MACRO-11, FORTRAN and APL). We measured the performance of programmers coding from these various PDLs in MACRO-11 and FORTRAN. Each participant was presented with three programs in one of the two programming languages. Several lines had been deleted from each program. A participant's task, performed online, was to complete the code using the PDLs. For programmers coding in MACRO-11, the MACRO-like PDL was associated with the shortest coding times. Further, the participants said they found the MACRO-like PDL easiest to use, and they relied on it most heavily. For programmers coding in FORTRAN, the FORTRAN-like PDL was associated with the shortest coding times; the participants said they found the FORTRAN-like PDL easiest to use, and they relied on it most heavily. From these data we conclude that optimal use of a PDL requires that it be tailored to the target programming language in terms of type of construct and level of detail.”
© All rights reserved Boehm-Davis et al. and/or Academic Press
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A., Holt, Robert, Koll, Matthew, Yastrop, Gloria and Peters, Robert (1987): The Effects of Different Data Base Formats on Information Retrieval. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 31st Annual Meeting 1987. pp. 983-987.
“This research examined the effects of three different data base formats on the information retrieval performance of users. Spatial, tabular, and verbal forms of two data base domains (airline and thesaurus) were constructed, along with questions that required users to search through the data base to determine the correct response. Three types of questions were designed -- spatial, tabular, and verbal. The data indicate that users are faster and more accurate in responding to the questions when the format of the information in the data base matches the type of information needed to answer the question. While the importance of matching data base format to query type may seem to be obvious, it would appear that the designers of most current data base systems have not taken this into account.”
© All rights reserved Boehm-Davis et al. and/or Human Factors Society
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Boehm-Davis, Deborah A. and Fregly, Andrew M. (1983): Documentation of Concurrent Programs. In: Smith, Raoul N., Pew, Richard W. and Janda, Ann (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 83 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conferenc December 12-15, 1983, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. pp. 256-261.
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