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ICPC 2022
Mon 16 - Tue 17 May 2022
co-located with ICSE 2022

Memorable function and variable names are useful for developers: they reduce the need to re-check how objects are named when one wants to use them, and they enhance comprehension when encountered when reading code. We look at the possible interplay between the information contained in names and how memorable they are. We show in two independent experiments involving a total of 190 subjects that informative names are usually easier to recollect than similar-length names which contain less focused information. Interestingly, we find that less-experienced and female participants are better at remembering the less informative names. We also find that short names, which are not just abbreviated but actually contain less information, are significantly more memorable. Hence a good choice would be to use the the shortest name that includes the most focused and pertinent information.

Paper preprint (names_recall_final.pdf)807KiB

Mon 16 May

Displayed time zone: Eastern Time (US & Canada) change

02:00 - 02:40
Session 3: Complexity from a Cognitive PerspectiveResearch at ICPC room
Chair(s): Simone Scalabrino University of Molise
02:00
7m
Talk
Estimating Developers' Cognitive Load at a Fine-grained Level Using Eye-tracking Measures
Research
Amine Abbad-Andaloussi Institute of Computer Science, St Gallen University, Switzerland, Thierry Sorg Institute of Computer Science, St Gallen University, Switzerland, Barbara Weber St. Gallen University
Media Attached
02:07
7m
Paper
So many brackets! An analysis of how SQL learners (mis)manage complexity during query formulation
Research
Daphne Miedema Eindhoven University of Technology, George Fletcher Eindhoven University of Technology, Efthimia Aivaloglou University of Leiden
DOI Pre-print Media Attached
02:14
7m
Talk
Anchoring Code Understandability Evaluations Through Task Descriptions
Research
Marvin Wyrich University of Stuttgart, Lasse Merz University of Stuttgart, Daniel Graziotin University of Stuttgart
Pre-print Media Attached
02:21
7m
Talk
The Effect of Information Content and Length on Name Recollection
Research
Asaf Etgar Hebrew University, Ram Friedman Hebrew University, Shaked Haiman Hebrew University, Dana Perez Hebrew University, Dror Feitelson Hebrew University
Media Attached File Attached
02:28
12m
Live Q&A
Q&A-Paper Session 3
Research


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