Interface design and cognitive style in learning an instructional computer simulation.

An experimental design was used to investigate how cognitive style interacts with interface design to affect users' abilities to learn to use a computer simulation. Eighteen nursing students were assigned to two groups, based on their cognitive style, and asked to solve 3 physiologic problems using 3 interface designs: a strip-chart display, an integrated balloon display, and an etiologic display. Students were given up to 2 minutes to solve each problem by administering 6 different hypothetical drugs targeted at different aspects of the simulated hemodynamic system. A mixed-design analysis of variance was used to determine the effects of interface design and cognitive style on number of problems solved, time to initiate treatment, percentage of time system maintained within normal parameters, and number of drugs used. We found that the effects of cognitive style on performance were mediated by interface design and tended to decrease with practice.