| This study investigated the interactive effects of the field dependence cognitive style and interface presentation modes (“icon-only” and “text-only”) on learners' performance in a CBI environment.; Forty-seven graduate students voluntarily participated. The Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) was administered to determine the subjects' level of field dependence cognitive style. Following the GEFT, all subjects interacted with the program, “The Geography of Turkey”. In this program subjects used either “text-only” or “icon-only” buttons to locate answers to the questions about the cultural, political, economic, and physical geography of Turkey. A total of 30 questions and 48 buttons, were designed into the program. Fifteen of these questions required subjects to locate an “icon-only” button. The remaining 15 questions required subjects to locate a “text-only” button. Eighteen additional buttons were designed into the program as distractors.; Subjects' search time, the number of buttons searched, and the number of correct answers were the dependent variables. The data were analyzed using a repeated-measures ANOVA with one between subjects factor (field dependence cognitive style) and one within subjects factor (interface presentation mode). The Tukey post hoc test was employed for further analysis when necessary.; The results of the study indicated that the interaction effect between interface presentation modes and students' relative degree of field dependence was not evident. However, the main effect of field dependence was significant; FI and FN students spent a shorter period of time searching the target buttons and answered more questions correctly than FD students. Additionally, FI students searched fewer buttons than FD students. The main effect of interface presentation mode was also statistically significant for learners' performance in terms of search time and the number of buttons searched. All subgroups spent less time and made fewer errors searching for “text-only” buttons than they did when searching for “icon-only” buttons. Significant differences were not found for the number of correct answers. |
