Assessment of Cognitive Style to Examine Students' Use of Hypermedia within Historic Costume

The major purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of fashion merchandising or education students' cognitive style consisting of nine dimensions to three media choices provided through a hypermedia lesson in historic costume. High-average standard scores were identified in three of the nine dimensions of cognitive style. Further statistical analyses indicated that students' cognitive styles affected the type of media selected. Both fashion merchandising and education students scored significantly higher (p = .01) on the postassessments than the pre-assessments, but neither group achieved significantly more than the other. From these data, it appeared that students used hypermedia effectively as an educational tool to accommodate learning style. It was possible to individualize instruction regardless of the learning style when the hypermedia system was used within the same instructional package.