Cognitive process during program debugging

Program debugging is a critical and complex activity in software engineering. Accurate and fast debugging leads to high quality software and a short time-to-market. Debugging involves a very demanding cognitive process. In a case study, we found all six levels of Bloom\´s taxonomy of cognitive learning, from "knowledge" through "comprehension", "application", "analysis", "synthesis", and "evaluation". The involvement of the higher levels of Bloom\´s taxonomy, such as synthesis and evaluation, indicates that program debugging is a difficult cognitive task. This fact may explain the difference between novices and experts in debugging effectiveness.