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Dissertation Information for John Reed Thompson

NAME:
- John Reed Thompson

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- University of Southern California (USA) (1986)

ADVISORS:
- Martha Hale

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Roger Greer
- Penelope Richardson

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: RELATIONSHIP OF COGNITIVE STYLE TO THE SUITABILITY OF DIFFERENT INFORMATION PACKAGING STYLES

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive style and the suitability of different information packaging styles to determine if the matching of cognitive and packaging styles could be used to facilitate the information transfer process.

Subjects were volunteers from the faculty of one California Community College. Fifty-eight subjects (35 male, 23 female) were administered the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) to determine their cognitive styles. The suitability, for each participant, of four sample information packages was then determined using the participants ratings for ease of understanding and preference.

The four information packages and the three dependent variables (Ease of Understanding, Preference, and Suitability) formed twelve statistical models. In each of these twelve models the effect of cognitive style (GEFT score) was analyzed while controlling for age, sex, educational level and academic area.

In seven of the twelve models cognitive style was statistically significant (at least 0.10). Only three of the models were in themselves statistically significant but in each of these cognitive style was significant at the 0.05 level or better.

This study supports the premise that there is a relationship between the suitability of different information packaging styles and the cognitive styles of the users. It recommends further study to identify specific information packaging style characteristics and to determine the cognitive styles for which each is best suited.

MPACT Scores for John Reed Thompson

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-07-24 12:57:31

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