VPLs and novice program comprehension: how do different languages compare?

This paper reports on an experiment which compared small control and data flow visual programming languages (VPLs). The study used a combination of the match-mismatch conjecture and the information types approach in order to investigate the effect of language style on comprehension. Results showed that the control flow VPL is associated with faster task performance, regardless of the match between language and task. However, accuracy scores showed some evidence of a match-mismatch effect. These results were supported by program summary data, which showed that the data flow VPL was associated with abstract, functional accounts of the program, while the control flow language led to low-level, procedural descriptions. This suggests that specific properties of VPLs lead to differences in program comprehension.