Cognitive Style FD/I: An Important Learner Characteristic for Educational Technologists

Abstract

The cognitive style field-dependent/field-independent (FD/FI) which represents the learners' typical mode of gaining, storing, processing and using information, accounts for considerable variations in achievement among learners. Accommodating this cognitive style construct in the instructional design process may narrow the differental learning gain between FD and FI learners. The purpose of this article is to review the literature on the cognitive style FD/FI and to suggest some implications for educational technologists in their efforts to address individual differences among learners during the instructional design process.

Examining the effects of text-only and text-and-visual instructional materials on the achievement of field-dependent and field-independent learners during problem-solving with modeling software

“…As Salomon (1994) argued, "It would be impossible to consider the interactions of media, cognition, and learning without taking into account the variety of ways in which individuals construct meaning and acquire knowledge" (p. xxii). Chinien andBoutin (1992/1993) also asserted that individual differences become important for researchers to consider when studying the performance of individuals interacting with technology to accomplish a task. Individual differences may refer to differences in cognitive ability, or cognitive control 1 (style) representing patterns of thinking that regulate and control the way individuals process and reason about information (Jonassen & Grabowski, 1993).…”

“…The characteristics of FD and FI learners appear to have important implications for instructional design (Chinien & Boutin, 1992/1993. FI learners are more successful in isolating target information from a complex whole, and can process information with more accurate performance on visual search tasks, analyze ideas into their constituent parts, and reorganize ideas into new configurations (Davis, 1991;Goodenough & Karp, 1961;Snowman & Biehler, 2003).…”

Efecto de un activador computacional de autoeficacia sobre el logro de aprendizaje en estudiantes de diferente estilo cognitivo

“…Ante estos resultados, se ha planteado que el estilo cognitivo debe ser tenido en cuenta al momento de elaborar materiales de enseñanza, diseñar ambientes computacionales o implementar estrategias de aprendizaje en el aula de clase (Chinien y Boutin, 1993;Tinajero et ál., 2011).…”

Exploring Learning Performance toward Cognitive Approaches of a Virtual Companion System in LINE app for m-learning

“…This particular distinction of cognitive styles was initially suggested by Witkin et al in 1954 and was also referred to as psychological differentiation (Witkin et al, 1962) or field articulation. Using this concept to differentiate between cognitive styles has been helpful in designing the fundamental characteristics of advanced educational technologies (Chinien & Boutin, 1992. This division of cognitive styles uses The Embedded Figures Test (EFT) as the standard categorization tool used to distinguish the degree of field independency or field dependency of a given study's participants (Messick, 1962).…”