Abstract
AbstractThe study presented in this paper aimed to examine the effect of visual and verbal cognitive style on learning from different types of visualization and modalities of explanatory text. Learning materials in the form of either computer‐based animation or a series of static pictures with written or spoken explanations were presented to 197 students. We found that a more developed visual cognitive style was related to a better learning outcome, when learning from a combination of static pictures and written text. Higher developed visualizers achieved poorer learning outcomes when learning with an animation and written text. The results are partially in line with an ability‐as‐compensator effect and the expertise reversal effect. Additionally, we found a modality effect as the versions with spoken text provided better results on learning outcome than the versions with written text regardless of the prominence of visual cognitive style. No significant interaction effects were found regarding verbal cognitive style.
Highlights
Learning with combinations of visual and verbal information has been a subject of intense research for many years (e.g., Carney & Levin, 2002; Hegarty, Carpenter, & Just, 1996; Mayer, 2014)
Our study aims to shed further clarity on this issue, because in the case of a one‐dimensional structure of visual–verbal cognitive style, we could expect that verbal cognitive style would play a comparable but inverse role in multimedia learning in comparison with visual cognitive style
Analyses were separately conducted for visual cognitive style and verbal cognitive style as a covariate
Summary
Learning with combinations of visual and verbal information has been a subject of intense research for many years (e.g., Carney & Levin, 2002; Hegarty, Carpenter, & Just, 1996; Mayer, 2014). A great range of individual learner characteristics has been investigated, among them are spatial ability (Höffler & Leutner, 2011; Huk, 2006) and the visual‐verbal dimension (Koć‐Januchta et al., 2017; Massa & Mayer, 2006). There are a number of studies in the literature describing difficulties in adapting learning environments to people's cognitive styles (e.g., Kirschner & van Merriënboer, 2013), we hope to shed more light on the learning processes related to visual/verbal cognitive style and different treatment factors. Considering the growing importance of personalized/adaptive education (cf.Domenech, Sherman, & Brown, 2016 ; Johnson & Samora, 2016 ; Zhao & Liu, 2019), our study might contribute to a deeper understanding of learning processes, which in turn might improve educational practice
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