Unexpected but informative: What fixation-related potentials tell us about the processing of ambiguous program code

Unexpected but informative: What fixation-related potentials tell us about the processing of confusing program code | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Unexpected but informative: What fixation-related potentials tell us about the processing of confusing program code Sven Apel, Annabelle Bergum, Anna-Maria Maurer, Norman Peitek, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5545002/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract As software pervades more and more areas of our professional and personal lives, there is an ever-increasing need to maintain software, and for programmers to be able to efficiently write and understand program code. In the first study of its kind, we analyze fixation-related potentials (FRPs) to explore the online processing of program code patterns that are confusing to programmers, but not the computer (so-called atoms of confusion), and their underlying neurocognitive mechanisms in an ecologically valid setting. Relative to clean counterparts in program code without an atom of confusion, confusing code elicits a late frontal positivity of about 400 to 700 ms after first looking at the atom of confusion. This frontal positivity resembles an event-related potential (ERP) component found during natural language processing that is elicited by unexpected but plausible words in sentence context. Thus, we suggest that the brain engages similar neurocognitive mechanisms in response to unexpected and informative inputs in program code and in natural language. In both domains, these inputs update a comprehender’s situation model that is essential for information extraction from a quickly unfolding input. Our results have far-reaching implications for programming and pave the way for interdisciplinary collaborations between software engineering and psycholinguistics. Biological sciences/Psychology Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Computer science Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Psychology program comprehension natural language comprehension atoms of confusion EEG fixation-related potentials event-related potentials late frontal positivity Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files AoCFRPSupp1.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5545002","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":431512449,"identity":"a38fd26d-647f-4a3e-a76b-b9ef143da98d","order_by":0,"name":"Sven 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