What is cognitive style?
Cognitive style is a person's typical way of taking in, organizing and using information. It is about how people think, not how well. Here is the research the ICA builds on.
A working definition
Psychologists use "cognitive style" for consistent individual differences in how people perceive, remember, think and solve problems. A style is a preference, not an ability: two people can solve the same problem equally well by different routes.
Four research traditions
- Field dependence and independence. Herman Witkin and colleagues described how far people rely on the surrounding context when they perceive and judge (Witkin et al., 1977).
- Wholist and analytic. Richard Riding and Ian Cheema grouped many earlier style labels into two broad dimensions, one of them wholist versus analytic (Riding and Cheema, 1991).
- Holistic and analytic thought across cultures. Richard Nisbett and colleagues found systematic cultural differences in attention to context versus objects (Nisbett et al., 2001).
- Rational and experiential thinking. Rosemary Pacini and Seymour Epstein measured analytical and intuitive-experiential thinking as separate tendencies (Pacini and Epstein, 1999).
Where the ICA fits
The ICA's two Thinking dimensions, Integrative Synthesis and Systematic Analysis, sit close to the wholist-analytic and holistic-analytic traditions. Its Social Attunement and Environmental Engagement dimensions reach beyond thinking into feeling and action. How closely ICA results line up with these established measures is question 3 of the study.
Cognitive style is not learning style
"Learning styles" claims that teaching matched to a student's preferred style improves learning have not held up when tested properly (Pashler et al., 2008). The ICA makes no such claim. Knowing your preferences can help you understand how you work with others; it does not mean you can only learn one way.
Style versus personality traits
Trait models such as the Big Five describe broad tendencies across many behaviors. Style measures focus on how people process information and act. The two overlap, which is why the ICA study compares them directly. The history of personality types shows how both grew from older typologies.
Questions
Is cognitive style fixed?
Styles are fairly consistent but not fixed; people can and do use other approaches when a situation demands it.
Is one style better?
No. Different styles suit different tasks, and teams usually benefit from a mix.
Sources
Keep reading
Start with the free ICA.
What cognitive style means in psychology, the research traditions from field dependence to holistic and analytic thinking, and where the ICA fits.