Assessing spatial navigation tools with instructional hypermedia for cognitive science

  • Authors:

  • Christine Diehl;Michael Ranney

  • Affiliations:

  • University of California, Berkeley;University of California, Berkeley

  • Venue:
  • ICLS '96 Proceedings of the 1996 international conference on Learning sciences
  • Year:
  • 1996

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Abstract

We investigated the influence of spatial visualization, spatial reasoning, and environmental cognition skills on students' use of instructional hypermedia navigation tools. Forty undergraduate cognitive science students were randomly assigned to one of two hypermedia system conditions: a map-like navigation tool ("spatial" representation) or a menu-like navigation tool ("less spatial"). All students performed a searching activity, then browsed freely through the system. Students then commented on their perceptions of the system and drew concept maps of the contents. Regression analyses indicate that performance with the map-like navigation tool is positively correlated with environmental cognition, whereas performance with the menu-like navigation tool is positively correlated with spatial visualization and reasoning. The general findings suggest that spatial navigation tools should be incorporated into instructional hypermedia with less spatial navigation methods to complement students' spatial cognitive abilities.