Abstract Programmers are frequently tasked with modifying, enhancing, and extending applications. To perform these tasks, programmers must understand existing code by forming mental representations. Empirical research is required to determine the mental representations constructed during program comprehension to inform the development of programming languages, instructional practices, and tools. To make recommendations for future work a systematic literature review was conducted that summarizes the empirical research on mental representations formed during program comprehension, how the methods and tasks have changed over time, and the research contributions. The data items included in the systematic review are empirical studies of programmers that investigated the comprehension and internal representation of code written in a formal programming language. The eligibility criteria used in the review were meant to extract studies with a focus on knowledge representation as opposed to knowledge utilization. The results revealed a lack of incremental research and a dramatic decline in the research meaning that newly developed or popularized languages and paradigms have not been a part of the research reviewed. Accordingly, we argue that there needs to be a resurgence of empirical research on the psychology of programming to inform the design of tools and languages, especially in new and emerging paradigms.

中文翻译：

---

程序心理表征实证研究的系统文献综述

摘要程序员经常负责修改、增强和扩展应用程序。为了执行这些任务，程序员必须通过形成心理表征来理解现有代码。需要进行实证研究来确定在程序理解过程中构建的心理表征，以便为编程语言、教学实践和工具的开发提供信息。为了对未来的工作提出建议，我们进行了系统的文献综述，总结了对程序理解过程中形成的心理表征的实证研究、方法和任务如何随时间变化以及研究贡献。系统评价中包含的数据项是对程序员的实证研究，这些研究调查了以正式编程语言编写的代码的理解和内部表示。审查中使用的资格标准旨在提取侧重于知识表示而非知识利用的研究。结果显示缺乏增量研究和研究的急剧下降，这意味着新开发或流行的语言和范式并没有成为审查研究的一部分。因此，我们认为需要重新兴起对编程心理学的实证研究，以便为工具和语言的设计提供信息，尤其是在新兴范式中。审查中使用的资格标准旨在提取侧重于知识表示而非知识利用的研究。结果显示缺乏增量研究和研究的急剧下降，这意味着新开发或流行的语言和范式并未成为审查研究的一部分。因此，我们认为需要重新兴起对编程心理学的实证研究，以便为工具和语言的设计提供信息，尤其是在新兴范式中。审查中使用的资格标准旨在提取侧重于知识表示而非知识利用的研究。结果显示缺乏增量研究和研究的急剧下降，这意味着新开发或流行的语言和范式并未成为审查研究的一部分。因此，我们认为需要重新兴起对编程心理学的实证研究，以便为工具和语言的设计提供信息，尤其是在新兴范式中。