One part that really grabbed my attention was the "double hump" phenomenon; I'm not sure if I never heard about it before or what, but I wanted to find out more about it. I realized upon reflection that it's a pretty incredible claim - a test that separates humans into two groups! It would seem to suggest some sort of Eloi/Morlock sort of thing going on, which would be pretty earth-shaking!
After looking around for a while, I found the original paper, which was never published in a journal but can be found online. I think this is the original:
I think it is quite good news for teaching and learning programming that the two hump phenomenon doesn't actually exist. The original paper seems to have gotten so much attention that I would guess more people know of it than know of its retraction, however, which seems unfortunate.
I don't recall exactly from your presentation how you were presenting the double hump phenomenon, as fact or as myth, and either way I think it got my attention and likely many others. Thank you for stimulating my curiosity and driving me to learn more about this fascinating line of research!
ajschumacher
commented
8 years ago
One part that really grabbed my attention was the "double hump" phenomenon; I'm not sure if I never heard about it before or what, but I wanted to find out more about it. I realized upon reflection that it's a pretty incredible claim - a test that separates humans into two groups! It would seem to suggest some sort of Eloi/Morlock sort of thing going on, which would be pretty earth-shaking!
After looking around for a while, I found the original paper, which was never published in a journal but can be found online. I think this is the original:
http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/research/PhDArea/saeed/paper1.pdf
In light of the potentially startling ramifications, I went looking for more writing on this topic. I found two things that I think are key:
First, another group attempted to replicate the original study and was not able to get the same results:
http://www.madalgo.au.dk/~larsen/papers/mental_models.pdf
Second, the supervising professor on the humps paper has retracted it, with some dramatic details that cast the finding even further into doubt:
http://retractionwatch.com/2014/07/18/the-camel-doesnt-have-two-humps-programming-aptitude-test-canned-for-overzealous-conclusion/
I think it is quite good news for teaching and learning programming that the two hump phenomenon doesn't actually exist. The original paper seems to have gotten so much attention that I would guess more people know of it than know of its retraction, however, which seems unfortunate.
I don't recall exactly from your presentation how you were presenting the double hump phenomenon, as fact or as myth, and either way I think it got my attention and likely many others. Thank you for stimulating my curiosity and driving me to learn more about this fascinating line of research!