Window Presentation Styles and User's Spatial Ability.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of spatial ability level and window presentation style of tiled and overlapped computer displays on the achievement of dental hygiene students. Participants were 43 first-term Dental Hygiene students enrolled full-time at a University School of Dental Medicine. Phase one of this project consisted of administering the Differential Aptitude Test: Space Relations Subtest to assess each subject's spatial ability. Individuals' scores were examined using a frequency distribution. Participants who ranked greater than the median were classified as having high spatial ability. Those scoring less than the median were placed in the low spatial ability group. Two HyperCard stacks were produced targeting the topic of Ergonomics in Dentistry. The stacks were designed with identical content but differed in information display; two window presentation styles were used. Subjects were randomly assigned by spatial ability level to one of the two treatment groups: tiled or overlapping displays. During phase two, each subject executed the corresponding computer-based tutorial program and completed an identical module test. The tiled and overlapping windowing environments appeared to have served as external memory devices to the user's internal memory source, thereby extending the participant's internal memory capability. Windows appear to alleviate, in part, the memory load of the learner by serving as "markers" of unfinished tasks. Subjects who demonstrated higher spatial ability skills obtained greater educational outcomes from the overlapped window formats. (Contains 31 references.) (Author/AEF)