The Role of Cognitive Fit in the Relationship Between Software Comprehension and Modification1
Authors: Shaft, Teresa M.; Vessey, Iris
Journal: MIS Quarterly (2006)
DOI: 10.2307/25148716
Although there is a long tradition of empirical studies of software developers, few studies have focused on software maintenance. Prior work is predicated on the belief that higher levels of software comprehension are associated with higher levels of performance on modification tasks. This study provides a more complete understanding of the relationship between software comprehension and modification. We conceptualize software maintenance as interlinking comprehension and modification, and argue that the relationship between the two is moderated by cognitive fit. Specifically, cognitive fit exists when the software maintainer’s dominant mental representation of the software and their mental representation of the modification task emphasize the same type of knowledge. We hypothesize that when cognitive fit exists, greater improvements in comprehension are associated with higher levels of performance on a modification task. When cognitive fit does not exist, however, the software maintainer’s mental representations of the software and of the modification task do not emphasize the same type of knowledge, which may mean that attention is devoted to comprehension at the expense of modi…