Abstract:

Previous studies on cognitive style propose that some people are visual learners; use visual modes of thinking and are better at processing images, and some people are verbal learners; use verbal modes of thinking and are better at processing words (Koc-Januchta et al. 2017; Mayer and Massa, 2003). Yet only a limited number of studies explore visualizer-verbalizer cognitive style effect on learning outcomes in the context of text-picture combinations (e.g., Höffler et al., 2010; Koc-Januchta et al., 2017). In addition, research on attribute-treatment interaction involving cognitive styles provides inconsistent results (Massa and Mayer, 2006). Therefore, this research examines the effects of cognitive style on student perceptions of a text-plus-picture learning activity in the context of a case study.

Ninety-three students, enrolled in four sections of the Principles of Marketing course at a private university in Turkey, participated in the study. The age of the students ranged from 19 to 23 years. The female students accounted for 42% of the sample, whereas 58% were male students. A company case study published in the textbook of the course, which addresses integrated marketing communication topic, was reproduced in a text-picture combination as a part of this study. In the first section of the questionnaire, instructional method perceptions of students were gathered through eight 7-point semantic differential-type scales. Effective/ineffective, useful/useless, satisfactory/unsatisfactory and good/bad scales were adapted from Young et al. (2003), and interesting/not interesting, entertaining/ boring, enjoyable/not enjoyable, and easy to understand/difficult to understand scales were adapted from Fowler and Thomas (2015). The second section includes the Santa Barbara Learning Style Questionnaire (SBLSQ), which is a six-item, 7-point Likert scale measurement of the visualizer-verbalizer cognitive style (Mayer and Massa, 2003). The last section consisted of demographic questions.

One-way ANOVA results reveal that both verbalizer and visualizer students perceive the instructional text-plus-picture case study as an effective, useful, satisfactory, good, interesting, entertaining, enjoyable and easy to understand learning activity. This finding supports the notion that predesigning learning activities drawing on multiple learning modalities can meet the needs of students with different cognitive styles (Karns, 2006). Thus, text-plus-picture case study learning activity can be considered as an effective instructional method that might appeal to both visual and verbal learners. On the other hand, Höffler et al. (2010) suggest that a highly versus less developed cognitive style difference may play a more pronounced role than a visual versus verbal style classification on learning outcomes. In this regard, results demonstrate that highly developed verbalizers and highly developed visualizers differ in terms of the perceived enjoyment and satisfaction with the instructional text-plus-picture case study. As Beuk (2016) argued, it is important to explore both the perceived usefulness and enjoyment of an instructional method to understand student perspective in depth. Therefore, this finding provides support for the idea that learning activities should be tailored for cognitive style differences (Höffler et al., 2010; Koc-Januchta et al., 2017) in terms of the pedagogical enjoyment outcome (Beuk, 2016; Pearson et al., 2006; Tang and Austin, 2009).

Keywords:

Cognitive Style, Verbalizer, Visualizer, Case Study, Learning Outcome.