Students without prior programming experience anchor more heavily in code and engage minimally with metaphor views compared to students with prior experience¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 2 studies · 1 associational r1, 1 qualitative r2 · q2
Currency · no dated study recorded · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Students with prior experience showed more balanced dwell distributions (Code 39.6%, Memory 43.5%, Metaphor 13.2%) while students without prior experience anchored in code (48.1%) with minimal metaphor use (3.3%). → pe-dwell q2 i? Group differences in dwell distributions had moderate effect sizes (Cliff's delta -0.28 to 0.33) but the comparison was underpowered given group sizes. → cliffs-delta

Evidence¶

pe-dwell¶

Naaz Sibia, Jessica Wen, Amber Richardson, Yashika Jain, Khushi Malik, Bogdan Simion, Carolina Nobre, Angela Zavaleta Bernuy, Andrew Petersen, and Michael Liut. 2026. Code as Anchor, Memory and Metaphor as Support: Learner Experiences with Multi-View Visualizations. ICER 2026 Vol. 1. https://doi.org/10.1145/3765964.3811662

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Gaze comparison of 13 students with prior programming experience against 6 without, from the same within-subjects study. The article reports the printed dwell percentages; no standardized effect size accompanies this specific contrast.

"Students with prior experience (PE, 𝑁=13) showed more bal- anced distributions (Code 39.6%, Memory 43.5%, Metaphor 13.2%), whereas those without prior experience (𝑁=6) anchored more heav- ily inCode(48.1%) with minimalMetaphoruse (3.3%)."

cliffs-delta¶

Naaz Sibia, Jessica Wen, Amber Richardson, Yashika Jain, Khushi Malik, Bogdan Simion, Carolina Nobre, Angela Zavaleta Bernuy, Andrew Petersen, and Michael Liut. 2026. Code as Anchor, Memory and Metaphor as Support: Learner Experiences with Multi-View Visualizations. ICER 2026 Vol. 1. https://doi.org/10.1145/3765964.3811662

q2 · i? · qualitative · r2

The article reports Cliff's delta of -0.28 to 0.33 for the experience-group dwell comparison and explicitly flags the analysis as underpowered given group sizes; no inferential p-value is printed for this contrast.

"Effect sizes were moderate (Cliff's 𝛿=− 0.28 to0.33) but underpowered given group sizes."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Students working with multi-view program visualizations spend nearly half their attention on the code view, with attention distribution varying by task topic — related
• Gaze transitions show integrative cross-pane viewing, with most participants beginning on memory and cycling between code and memory — related
• Identical representational designs produced wide individual variation in what felt helpful versus overwhelming (representational fit) — related