A large-scale empirical study on the cognitive complexity of software

There are many measures for software complexities in software engineering. An emerging developer-oriented measure is recently developed known as the cognitive complexity from the field of cognitive informatics and cognitive computing. This paper describes an empirical approach using a Software Cognitive Complexity Analysis Tool (SCCAT) to analyze a comprehensive set of real-world software system programs. Practical and quantifiable results of the cognitive complexity measure are then presented. Additional characteristics of cognitive complexity measure are described that provide insights into human cognition in software engineering.