The Coding Brain: P600 Effects Elicited by the Visual Programming Language ScratchJr

In recent years, there is a growing emphasis on early childhood coding education to equipstudents with essential skills for an increasingly technical society. While emerging research hasinvestigated how text-based programming languages are processed in the adult brain, the neuralmechanisms underlying early childhood visual programming languages like ScratchJr remainlargely unexplored. This preregistered study examined the cognitive basis of ScratchJrprocessing, with two primary research aims: 1. Investigate whether ScratchJr elicits neuralsignatures comparable to natural languages and other rule-based processes (specifically N400and semantic P600 responses) and 2. Explore how ScratchJr competence modulates these effects.We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) from 40 (N = 40) adults while they completed asemantic congruency task using ScratchJr stimuli. Neural responses were analyzed in time binsassociated with N400 and P600 components, and ScratchJr competence was included as apotential factor to modulate these results. Results revealed a P600 response to semanticviolations, with no modulation by ScratchJr competence. These findings contribute to a growingbody of literature on the processing of programming languages and support the notion thatScratchJr processing evokes neural mechanisms related to structured processes such as naturallanguage.