The Aesthetic Impression Given By Web-Based Learning Systems: The Influence of Cognitive Style

Drawing on theories of cognitive psychology, I have developed a research model to explain the relationship between the visual factors and the aesthetic impression of a web page according to users’ emotional responses. A series of investigations of a web-based learning system were explored in order to further understand the aesthetic impression created by different cognitive styles. The results indicated that: 1) 15 adjective pairs were classified two major visual factors, order and complexity, through semantic difference method and factor analysis; 2) a perceptual map of web-based learning systems was drawn up according to the two dimensions of complexity vs. simple, and order vs. confused; 3) the intermediate students showed higher emotional responses than holistic and analytic students especially in regard to the order factor when viewing a webpage.