Novice programmers often struggle through programming problem solving due to
a lack of metacognitive awareness and strategies. Previous research has shown
that novices can encounter multiple metacognitive difficulties while
programming. Novices are typically unaware of how these difficulties are
hindering their progress. Meanwhile, many novices are now programming with
generative AI (GenAI), which can provide complete solutions to most
introductory programming problems, code suggestions, hints for next steps when
stuck, and explain cryptic error messages. Its impact on novice metacognition
has only started to be explored. Here we replicate a previous study that
examined novice programming problem solving behavior and extend it by
incorporating GenAI tools. Through 21 lab sessions consisting of participant
observation, interview, and eye tracking, we explore how novices are coding
with GenAI tools. Although 20 of 21 students completed the assigned programming
problem, our findings show an unfortunate divide in the use of GenAI tools
between students who accelerated and students who struggled. Students who
accelerated were able to use GenAI to create code they already intended to make
and were able to ignore unhelpful or incorrect inline code suggestions. But for
students who struggled, our findings indicate that previously known
metacognitive difficulties persist, and that GenAI unfortunately can compound
them and even introduce new metacognitive difficulties. Furthermore, struggling
students often expressed cognitive dissonance about their problem solving
ability, thought they performed better than they did, and finished with an
illusion of competence. Based on our observations from both groups, we propose
ways to scaffold the novice GenAI experience and make suggestions for future
work.

新手编程人员在解决编程问题方面常常面临元认知意识和策略的缺乏。前期研究已经表明，新手在编程时可能会遇到多个元认知困难。新手通常不了解这些困难如何阻碍他们的进展。与此同时，许多新手正在使用生成型人工智能（GenAI）进行编程，它可以提供大多数入门级编程问题的完整解决方案、代码建议、停滞时的下一步提示以及解释难懂的错误消息。然而，GenAI 对新手元认知的影响才刚刚开始被探索。通过 21 个由参与者观察、访谈和眼动跟踪组成的实验室会话，我们复制了一项以前的研究，研究了新手编程问题解决行为，并通过加入 GenAI 工具进行了扩展。虽然 21 名学生中有 20 名完成了分配的编程问题，但我们的研究结果显示 GenAI 工具在加快学生进度和使学生困难的使用方面存在一个令人遗憾的差距。加快进度的学生能够使用 GenAI 创建他们已经打算创建的代码，并能够忽略不合理或错误的内联代码建议。但是对于遇到困难的学生，我们的研究结果表明，以前已知的元认知困难仍然存在，并且 GenAI 不幸地可能会加重这些困难，甚至引入新的元认知困难。此外，遇到困难的学生通常对他们的问题解决能力存在认知失调，并且他们认为自己的表现比实际情况要好，并最终产生了一种自负的错觉。基于我们对两组学生的观察，我们提出了支持新手 GenAI 体验的方式，并对未来的工作提出了建议。