The influence of visual cognitive style when learning from instructional animations and static pictures

In a 2 x 2 design, we examined the role of visual cognitive style in two multimedia-based learning environments (text plus static pictures/animations). A statistically significant interaction was obtained for deeper comprehension: Highly developed visualizers (HDV) who learned with static pictures performed better than HDV who learned with animations, and less developed visualizers (LDV) performed the same with static pictures or animations. For factual knowledge, there was a main effect in favor of HDV. Subsequent tests revealed that HDV outperformed LDV only when learning from static pictures, but not when studying animations. There were no overall differences between animations and static pictures. The assumption is made that HDV benefit from their cognitive style when they have to construct a mental animation from static pictures. Concluding, we did not find any rationale for converting static pictures to animations HDV learned better with static pictures, while for LDV, it made no difference. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.