I found this story in The Week a couple of months ago. It reminded me of papers I'd heard in early PPIG workshops which described program understanding; it was said that novices read programs line-by-line rather than recognising structures (plans?).
The Week is a news magazine which digests local and world news. The "Health & Science" page often includes dubious research but I wondered how much of these results could also apply to expert programmers. How to be a Grandmaster (The Week, 25 Aug 2001) "To be a chess Grandmaster, skill is not enough. You also need a prodigious memory. Scientists have discovered that professional players use a completely different part of their brain from amateurs that enables them to access a huge "memory bank" of more than 100,000 moves. During the game they simply delve into the bank and pluck out the right one. Amateurs, by contrast, analyse each new move, work out their opponent's strategy and try to counter it. "The discovery was made by scientists at the University of Constance who examined the brains of 20 players while they pined their wits against a computer. Activity in the brains of Grandmasters was centred on the frontal and parietal cortex, areas associated with remote memory storage. In amateurs, the activity was focused on the medial temporal lobes and hippocampus, areas involved in analysing new information and relying on recent memories." Paola - Automatic footer for [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe discuss To join the announcements list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe announce To receive a help file, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] help This list is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/ If you have any problems or questions, please mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
