RELATIONSHIP OF PIAGETIAN FORMAL OPERATIONS AND OTHER COGNITIVE FACTORS TO COMPUTER PROGRAMMING ABILITY (DEVELOPMENT)

The purpose of this study was to determine if success in writing computer programs is related to level of cognitive development, verbal ability, math reasoning, and grade point average. This study presents a model that predicts computer programming ability. Twenty-three subjects were drawn from students enrolled in BASIC programming classes at Broward Community College. Each subject was given the School and College Ability Test (SCAT II) test to assess math and verbal levels and the Inventory of Piaget's Developmental Tasks (IPDT) to assess level of cognitive development. Grade point averages were obtained from the registrar. The instructor's final examination, which consisted of generating BASIC programs, was used as a measure of programming ability. Each student was given 45 hours of instruction in BASIC by the instructor and had access to laboratory facilities equipped with IBM Personal Computers. Pearson r correlations were performed using each predictor (grade point average, verbal ability, math reasoning, and level of cognitive development) as independent variables and computer programming ability as the dependent variable. The correlations were all significant. To determine how well all four factors together predict programming ability, multiple regression analysis was performed using all of the predictors as independent variables and computer programming ability as the dependent variable. This study supports prior research showing that grade point average, math reasoning and verbal ability were each significant predictors of success in computer programming. Results showed that level of cognitive development is linearly predictive of success in computer programming. Results of the regression showed that level of cognitive development, when combined with verbal reasoning, is linearly predictive of programming ability.