Effect of Cognitive Style and Working Memory on Floral Design Ability

Abstract

Students were sampled from two universities in southern Taiwan from 1 September 2022 to 31 October 2022. This study examined the factors affecting the floral design ability of 125 university students by analyzing the relationship between demographic variables, cognitive styles, working memory, and floral design ability. The results revealed that the cognitive style, working memory, and floral design ability scores of the participants were 2.82 (standard deviation [SD]: 0.35), 5.06 (SD: 1.11), and 77.27 (SD: 5.43), respectively. Most participants were visual processors and demonstrated favorable scores for working memory and floral design ability. Floral design ability had a moderately positive correlation with cognitive style (r = 0.474, p < 0.000) and working memory (r = 0.521, p < 0.000). Both working memory and cognitive style were influential factors for floral design ability. Specifically, working memory exhibited a higher predictive power and explained 27.2% of the variance, whereas cognitive style only explained 10.3% of the variance. Therefore, teaching aids that improve working memory, such as computer games and picture cards, can be used as supplementary teaching aids in floral design education. Visual processors can be taught using more picture-based or photo-based teaching methods, whereas a list of operational procedures is more suitable for verbal processors.