Code tracing—simulating the way the computer executes a program—is a common teaching
and assessment practice in introductory programming courses. In a laboratory experiment
where code tracing was encouraged, we found that some struggling novice programmers
described code tracing as not only cognitively complex, but also in opposition to their self-
beliefs. One participant described himself as not a computer, and therefore unfit to execute
code like the computer does. Another described himself as not a programmer, and did not …