Many young people are inclined toward risk taking and also toward helping other people. "Prosocial risk taking" is a term that can describe different ways that youth provide significant instrumental and emotional support to family members, friends, and strangers, even when it involves a personal risk. In this article, we review research…

Individual differences (IDs) have long been considered one of the most important factors explaining variable rates and outcomes in second language acquisition (Dewaele, 2013). While traditional operationalizations of IDs have, explicitly or implicitly, assumed that IDs are static traits that are stable through time, more recent research inspired…

This paper looks at the paradox of how recognition of diversity through research into individual differences, in such areas as learning style, cognitive style and personality, has had the reductionist effect of promoting commonality. This has been the outcome of the competition between inventories; the reduction of diversity to characteristics…

This research identified and compared the learning styles of 154 ethnically diverse, upper division undergraduate and graduate students in Allied Health utilizing the "Building Excellence" (BE) (Rundle & Dunn, 2000) and the "Productivity Environmental Preference Survey" (PEPS) (Dunn, Dunn, & Price, 1996). Relationships among age, class standing,…

Describes some ways in which learning styles have been examined. Discusses the ways in which differences in learning styles may develop. Presents educational implications of this work. (RJC)

Howard Gardner's hypothesis of seven distinct types of intelligence is explained and each of the theorized intelligences is related to the theory of cognitive style. The article concludes that multiple intelligence theory is not about new "intelligences," but rather, a reframing of what others have defined as cognitive styles. (DB)

This paper explores whether the principles of cognitive load and multimedia theory are mediated by cognitive style, gender, and prior knowledge. Participants were 91 children aged 10-11 years (54 boys, 37 girls), each assigned to one of two presentation modes. In Condition 1 children were presented with diagrams supported by printed textual…

Discusses the use of hypermedia to accommodate students' individual learning differences and to help students develop complex learning skills to acquire complex knowledge. Examines 10 research studies that investigated interaction between students' learning skills and their use of different forms of instruction. (Author/LRW)

The paper reviews research studies on individual differences in students' predispositions to learning either in quiet or with sound. One study with 64 sixth graders found students achieved higher standardized reading test scores and had better attitudes when taught in congruent, rather than incongruent, environments. (DB)

Learning style is a factor researchers claim influences student educational performance. This article summarizes information about student learning styles. The idea of learning styles is based on the theory that there are different methods of gathering, organizing, and evaluating information. Research has not produced conclusive evidence about…

Studies of the brain and of the human culture can be used to demonstrate the limits of traditional approaches (based on psychological perspectives which are often narrow and restrictive) to learning styles and to offer additional perspectives on the complexity of learning. The study of the hemispheres of the brain and its triune nature indicates…

Suggests cognitive style as a conceptual approach to older adult instruction. Summarizes data on younger learners obtained through this approach. Results of initial research indicated older adults prefer the field-dependent cognitive approach to content and methodology. Implications for elderly education are discussed. (RC)

The author reviews some research, particularly that of Roger Sperry, substantiating the existence of different thinking styles in the two brain hemispheres and the development of this differentiation in infancy and childhood. She draws some implications for elementary teaching. (SJL)

The role of affect in counseling has been examined from several orientations. The depth of processing model views the efficiency of information processing as a function of the extent to which the information is processed. The notion of cognitive processing capacity states that processing information at deeper levels engages more of one's limited…

Presents a proposed unifying relationship between instructional methods and cognitive operations, and argues that it is the location of the processing of the learning task that defines the function, type, and extent of the instructional method required. More than 50 references are listed. (MER)