Transfer of programming skills in novice lisp learners

This research addresses novices' learning of the programming language LISP and transfer between coding, debugging, and evaluation. Subjects learned with the help of computer tutors that implemented instructional manipulations. The first two experiments employed a counterbalance design to gauge the amount of transfer between the three programming skills. The first experiment used computer tutors throughout, while the second employed a non-tutor test phase. Results from both experiments were almost identical, indicating strong specific within-skill transfer, but limited or no across-skill transfer. Coding and evaluation emerged as two separate tasks that did not seem to have a common component. A simulation model done in PUPS, a production system language based on ACT* (Anderson, 1983) could account for the transfer patterns. Specific productions were learned for the coding and evaluation skills, respectively, while using a common knowledge base. The third experiment included a manipulation designed to foster transfer between coding and debugging. Subjects had to evaluate the functions that they had coded. They did correct their code more often when they had to evaluate it, but they did not maintain this strategy in a later test phase, producing no transfer. These results support an identical elements theory of transfer based on ACT* learning mechanisms. They also suggest some strategies for curriculum design in programming instruction.