Learning styles and adult intellectual development: An investigation of their influence on learning in a hypertext environment

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate influences of learning styles and the stages of adult intellectual development on learning in hypertext environments. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine the implications of these variables for the design of hypertext instruction.;The four independent variables were: processing and perception dimensions of learning styles (as measured by Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI)), adult intellectual development (as measured by the Learning Environment Preferences (LEP), an objective measure of Perry's Scheme of Intellectual and Ethical Development), and learner control. Learner control was defined through three hypertext structures which offered low (hierarchy structure), moderate (hierarchy with association structure), and high (web structure) levels of learner control. The dependent measures included an immediate posttest, delayed posttest, pre-belief questionnaire and post-belief questionnaire.;Ninety-one undergraduate college students participated in the study. After completion of the initial instruments (LSI, LEP, pre-belief questionniare, and demographic survey) students were randomly assigned to one of three treatments representing the three levels of learner control. The topic of the instructional treatment was telecommunications. At the end of the lesson, students completed the immediate posttest and the post-belief questionnaire. A delayed posttest was administered two weeks later.;Data analysis included the use of the General Linear Model, paired t-tests and simple ANOVAs. Performance results indicated that there was a significant three-way interaction among the factors of the processing dimension of learning styles, adult intellectual development, and learner control. There was a significant two-way interaction among the factors of the processing dimension of learning style and learner control. In addition, there were significant positive differences in each of the treatment groups for belief factors learning with computers and lesson structure. There were no significant differences among changed scores for treatment groups for either of the belief factors.