This paper describes a qualitative study investigating how undergraduate CS majors solved assignments from a Theory of Computation (ToC) course in individually-formed study groups. We use Distributed Cognition Theory as the underlying theoretical framework and ask two research questions: 1) How do students use mathematical notations to work on their assignment, and 2) how and by which means do students assure themselves that their approach is correct? We observed 12 undergraduate CS majors tasked with developing a proof for NP-completeness working in three study groups. Data collected in this study points to students' lack of working proficiency, especially with regard to creating mathematical inscriptions, as a key aspect in their difficulties in solving ToC assignments. This result is significant because it highlights the need to reexamine widely used assumptions about reasons for students' difficulties with ToC, e.g., lack of interest due to abstract and theoretical nature of ToC.
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Knobelsdorf et al. (2016) studied this question.