Strategy Choice and Change in Programming

Quanfeng Wu, John R. Anderson

Abstract: This research studied looping or iterative choice and change, especially between the "while-do" and "repeat-until" looping constructs in the PASCAL programming language. The empirical results from the first experiment, in which subjects were free to choose between the two looping alternatives, indicated that most PASCAL programmers are quite sensitive to the nature of the problems being solved and adaptable in choosing appropriate looping strategies. Another two experiments were performed in which subjects were either forced or induced to use one of the two looping strategies. These two experiments indicated that subjects are quite tenacious in using the appropriate strategy and their performance deteriorates when they are forced to use a different strategy.