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And yet natural language aptitude highly predicts programming ability[0] [0] https://cacm.acm.org/careers/243179-forget-math-language-skills-are-stronger-predi

by ipnon 6y ago

And yet natural language aptitude highly predicts programming ability[0] [0] https://cacm.acm.org/careers/243179-forget-math-language-skills-are-stronger-predictor-of-programming-ability/fulltext https://cacm.acm.org/careers/243179-forget-math-language-ski...

gxs 6y ago
I'm not intending to make some grandiose point here, only that I suspect natural language aptitude is highly correlated with success in various different domains, not just programming.
- ipnon 6y ago
  It really is misunderstood by the public what a difficult intellectual task programming computers is.
GolDDranks 6y ago
On the other hand, "natural language aptitude" as measured by Modern (modern = ca. 1960s) Language Aptitude Test, which they used in that study, doesn't actually predict success in language acquisition. The test scores correlate with ability to perform well at _early_ phase of language curricula – but this is exactly the phase when the learners are still using the "general processing mechanisms" to process language, and not the mechanisms specialized for language that get engaged when they gain fluency years later. Sadly, this is underappreciated in the general psychology and linguistics community. Some researchers in Second Language Acquisition research community are more concerned about this kind of mis-interpretation and confusion of different meanings of "language skills/aptitude".
syrrim 6y ago
>And yet natural language aptitude highly predicts programming ability Its all correlated with g. >[0] They contrast "language learning ability", ie intrinsic intelligence, with "math knowledge", ie amount of schooling. For reference, you can take (a version of) the math knowledge test used here: https://www.idrlabs.com/numeracy/test.php https://www.idrlabs.com/numeracy/test.php If the article wanted to give a more honest interpretation of the paper, they would have focused on the leading predictor of programming ability, "fluid reasoning and working-memory capacity". One supposes this to be quite useful in math and engineering.
- red75prime 6y ago
  > Its all correlated with g. I saw a paper that argues that there are two factors: g and math. But that's tangential.
- vanderZwan 6y ago
  What is "g" in this context? My first association is the gravitational constant, but somehow I highly doubt you're referring to that
  - syrrim 6y ago
    General intelligence.
peey 6y ago
It's important to note the methodology employed in the original paper used "did not have meaningful structure or variable names" [1]. If the code's like that, then yes it's less like reading a language and more like cryptic puzzles. But limitedness of the methodology means the conclusion can't apply to software development at large, something that the title misleads us about. [1]: https://twitter.com/wcrichton/status/1339235494102753280 https://twitter.com/wcrichton/status/1339235494102753280

by ipnon 6y ago

gxs 6y ago

I'm not intending to make some grandiose point here, only that I suspect natural language aptitude is highly correlated with success in various different domains, not just programming.

ipnon 6y ago
It really is misunderstood by the public what a difficult intellectual task programming computers is.

GolDDranks 6y ago

On the other hand, "natural language aptitude" as measured by Modern (modern = ca. 1960s) Language Aptitude Test, which they used in that study, doesn't actually predict success in language acquisition. The test scores correlate with ability to perform well at _early_ phase of language curricula – but this is exactly the phase when the learners are still using the "general processing mechanisms" to process language, and not the mechanisms specialized for language that get engaged when they gain fluency years later. Sadly, this is underappreciated in the general psychology and linguistics community. Some researchers in Second Language Acquisition research community are more concerned about this kind of mis-interpretation and confusion of different meanings of "language skills/aptitude".

syrrim 6y ago

>And yet natural language aptitude highly predicts programming ability Its all correlated with g. >[0] They contrast "language learning ability", ie intrinsic intelligence, with "math knowledge", ie amount of schooling. For reference, you can take (a version of) the math knowledge test used here: https://www.idrlabs.com/numeracy/test.php https://www.idrlabs.com/numeracy/test.php If the article wanted to give a more honest interpretation of the paper, they would have focused on the leading predictor of programming ability, "fluid reasoning and working-memory capacity". One supposes this to be quite useful in math and engineering.

red75prime 6y ago
> Its all correlated with g. I saw a paper that argues that there are two factors: g and math. But that's tangential.
vanderZwan 6y ago
What is "g" in this context? My first association is the gravitational constant, but somehow I highly doubt you're referring to that
- syrrim 6y ago
  General intelligence.

peey 6y ago

It's important to note the methodology employed in the original paper used "did not have meaningful structure or variable names" [1]. If the code's like that, then yes it's less like reading a language and more like cryptic puzzles. But limitedness of the methodology means the conclusion can't apply to software development at large, something that the title misleads us about. [1]: https://twitter.com/wcrichton/status/1339235494102753280 https://twitter.com/wcrichton/status/1339235494102753280