Interaction of cognitive style and learner control in a hypermedia environment

Educational hypermedia has been heralded as providing instruction that accommodates learners ’ individual differences, allowing them to learn in accordance with their unique needs, desires, and preferences. Advocates of hypermedia point to learner control, multimedia capability, and parallels to theories of human memory as evidence for educational hypermedia’s efficacy. While intuitively appealing, empirical research has not confirmed (or rejected) this assumption. Nor is there compelling evidence to suggest that learners who posses different cognitive styles benefit equally from educational hypermedia environments. This study reports on an examination of cognitive style field dependence/independence and learner control of presentation mode within an educational hypermedia environment. Participants were 122 high school juniors and seniors enrolled in classes whose curricula dealt with the political process. The experimental sites were three high schools located in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. Learners classified as field dependent and field independent were asked to explore a commercia