Information-conveying approaches and cognitive styles of mental modeling in a hypermedia-based learning environment

Despite the great degree of navigational freedom, however , not all hypermedia users have the capability to locate information or assimilate internal knowledge. Research findings suggest that this type of problem could be solved if users were able to hold a cognitive overview of the hypermedia structure. How a learner can acquire the correct structural knowledge of online information has become an important factor in learning performance in a hypermedia environment. Variables that might influence learners' abilities in structuring a cognitive overview, such as users' cognitive styles and the different ways of representing information, should be carefully taken into account. The results of this study show that the interactions between information representation approaches and learners' cognitive styles have significant effects on learners' performance in terms of structural knowledge and feelings of disorientation. Learners' performance could decline if a representational approach that contradicts their cognitive style is used. Finally , the results of the present study may apply only when the learner's knowledge level is in the introductory stage. It is not clear how and what type of cognitive styles, as well as information representation approaches, will affect the performance of advanced and expert learners. Background Learning is a process of reorganization of knowledge structure. Based on the concept of meaningful learning (Ausubel, 1963), in one way, learners structure knowledge to serve as a framework that helps them to associate new information with previous knowledge. As this framework becomes more complex, learners may in turn rely on this conceptual structure to filter important points from irrelevant ones. The acquisition of correct structural knowledge has become a critical issue in learning. Among other computer technologies, hypermedia has potential as a tool to mediate the structural knowledge of the target domain to learners. One of the theories about mind structure, the " mind as rhizome " (MAR) metaphor (Eco, 1984), hypothesizes that the human mind is organized like an underground rhizome. Hypermedia tangibly simulates the learning assumptions of this mind metaphor in that learners can filter, link, and search for new or existing information. These features have made hypermedia an ideal tool for supporting multilineal thinking and facilitating self-directed learning. Compared with novice users of a subject domain, expert users in the same domain are believed to possess a better knowledge structure that enables them to effectively solve problems. The learning strategy of externalizing experts' knowledge structures to provide " idiosyncratic " intellectual …