---
title: "Simulating Student Programmers"
authors:
  - "James C. Spohrer"
  - "Elliot Soloway"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1989/87"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1989/0087.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1989
pages: "543-548"
track: "Cognitive Models"
keywords:
---

# Simulating Student Programmers

James C. Spohrer, Elliot Soloway

*Proceedings of the Eleventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 543-548.

## Abstract

A cognitive model of student programmers is presented The model is based on protocol studies of students writing Pascal programs, and is implemented in a computer simulation program. The claim of this paper is that a computational cognitive model of student program generation fits within a generate-test-and-debug (GID) problem solving architecture in which impasse/repair knowledge plays a key role. The claim is supported by showing how the model provides a useful descriptive account of the way students write alternative programs.