An investigation of applications of cognitive mapping to instructional strategies for college courses in basic mathematics

During the fall quarter of 1979, a study was conducted at Roane State Community College in Harriman, Tennessee, in which two treatments consisting of a visual and an auditory presentation of the same material were employed for the instruction of basic arithmetic skills in the developmental studies program. The Hill Cognitive Mapping Inventory was used to classify the cognitive learning style of each subject as either visual or auditory, and after randomly assigning each subject to a treatment, some subjects' cognitive styles and treatments were matched and others' were mismatched. A total of 74 subjects participated in the study.

Of concern in this study was whether this matching and mismatching resulted in differences in the acquisition of basic arithmetic skills or changes in attitudes toward mathematics. Gain scores acquired from the pre- and posttreatment uses of the Basic Skills Test (SK/1) of the Mathematical Association of America and the Aiken Attitude Scale were used to evaluate effects on the subjects' arithmetic skills and attitudes toward mathematics.

Statistical analysis of the data detected no significant differences in basic skills acquisition or changes in attitude toward mathematics for subjects with matched treatments and styles as opposed to those with mismatched treatments and styles. No significant differences were noted concerning skills acquisition and attitude changes of subjects having a visual treatment versus subjects having an auditory treatment. The analysis did not show any significant differences in skills acquisition and attitude changes among the four groups: auditory style-auditory treatment, visual style-visual treatment, auditory style-visual treatment, and visual style-auditory treatment. However, a slight tendency was detected for subjects with auditory cognitive style to find the visual treatment unacceptable as evidenced by the rate of transfer of these subjects from this treatment.

The relatively small gains for basic skills and attitudes reported in this study perhaps indicated that the developmental studies course was ineffective and/or that the use of the Hill Inventory in this environment was suspect.