Thinking about Complex Problems with Modeling Software: The Role of Cognitive Style and Visual and Textual Representations

Sixty-five undergraduates, classified into Field-Dependent (FD), Field-Mixed (FM), and Field-Independent (FI) learners, were randomly assigned to two groups, Text-Only (T-O) and Text-and-Visual (T-V). The T-O group received a textual description of a computer model, whereas the T-V group received the same description but in both textual and visual format. Participants were asked to run the model using Model-It to solve a complex problem about immigration dynamics. A 3x2 ANOVA indicated that the T-V group outperformed the T-O group, that performance was significantly related to field-dependence/independence, and that there was a significant interaction effect. Specifically, FieldIndependent learners in the Text-and-Visual group outperformed Field-Dependent and Field-Mixed learners in both groups, and Field-Independent learners in the Text-Only group.