Learning to program is very difficult for many students and we have seen failure rates in Queensland University of Technology (QUT) introductory programming units at over 40%. The reasons students struggle in this domain has been a widely debated topic for many years with little prospect of a 'silver bullet'. We do know that expert computer programmers operate at a high level of abstract reasoning. This research will map the documented stages of abstract reasoning according to cognitive development theory against the levels of abstract reasoning exhibited by novice programmers. Understanding how that reasoning is developed will enable us to influence and improve the transition of students from one stage to the next more complex level, of cognition in that domain.