RE: PPIG discuss: OOD and cognition

[Bill Curtis]

I edited a special issue of Human-Computer Interaction back in 1995 that contained 5 empirical studies of OOD, most from a cognitive perspective.  There were some counterintuitive results in some of the papers.  They will also reference some of the earlier papers on experimental OOD research.  You might also look for copies of the periodic workshops on Empirical Studies of Programmers, as some of the reseach will appear there as well.  Good luck.           - Bill -----Original Message----- From: Allen Milewski [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 15, 2003 8:23 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: PPIG discuss: OOD and cognition I've recently had cause to become interested in software/programming educational techniques. In the education literature, there seem to be two kinds of positions: (1) OOD has so many advantages that we should teach it early and (2) OOD is a more natural way to think, as long as it hasn't been tainted by earlier training in procedural thinking- so we should teach it early.    As a result of both positions, teaching Object Oriented Methods is absolute gosple at most institutions.  But, I have heard many educators quietly complain that OOD is very hard for naive students to learn, that it requires an entire different "level" of work (namely, abstract design) and even that for students (even for many experienced programmers) Object-oriented thinking is often a secondary thing wherein. programs are first conceived in procedural terms and then "translated" to object-oriented design because OOD is the "right way".   Can anyone help me with the basic literature to support position #2 above?  I'm willing to believe that the cognition literature suggests we can think in terms of objects, but what is the empirical basis for saying it is more natural? What problem solving steps/techniques are facilitated by OOD? What is the mechanism for the alleged interference by procedural thinking on learning OOD?     Is there a thread in the archives on this?- its seems there must have been many.   Any help would be appreciated.   _____________________ Allen Milewski Department of Software Engineering Monmouth University [EMAIL PROTECTED]