In recent years, researchers have questioned the legitimacy of the so-called myth of learning styles and expressed confusion about exactly when and why the idea first emerged. This historical study traces the origin and emergence of the learning style idea. The author argues that the learning style idea originated in the 1960s as part of a broader…

By investigating undergraduates' epistemological orientations and processes in academic and personal contexts, this study examined whether and how epistemological development in one context is related to development in another context. The focus of this particular study was on tension regarding the contextuality of epistemological development. The…

This study examined children's explanatory style for health- and safety-related events. Fifty children (ages 8 to 11) were interviewed using 12 health-related questions based on Seligman's Content Analysis of Verbatim Explanations (CAVE) method. Children and their mothers also completed a health status form, which included questions on the…

One hundred sixteen second grade children participated in a study of the relationship of field dependence to egocentrism and conservation ability. (BD)

Forty-four second grade students participated in a study examining the relationships between field dependence/independence (FDI), grammatical awareness, reading ability, and training in grammatical awareness. After the children were pretested for their levels of cognitive development, degree of field independence, grammatical awareness, and…

Tested whether or not cognitive development (as measured by mental capacity) and cognitive style (as measured by field-dependence/independence) are different dimensions. Results are discussed with regard to Pascual-Leone's model of cognitive development, relevance to stylistic dimension of reflection/impulsivity, and educational implications.…

The purpose of this study was to identify potential sources of individual and group differences affecting formal thought, and to examine the relationship between the performance of college students on a specific formal operational task and their performance on other cognitive measures identified as possible sources of individual differences. (MK)

An approach to intelligence which emphasizes domain-specific constraints on knowledge structures is compared to information processing approaches. The evaluation of any cognitive ability as being intelligent crucially depends on prior specification of the formal constraints on the domains of knowledge from which that ability originates. (Author/RD)

From investigations of cognitive development, intellectual ability, and learning strategies, representative examples of research are used to highlight dilemmas which attend the use of the terms "stages,""levels,""styles," and "strategies" to describe different aspects of human thinking and learning, especially in adolescents and young adults.…

Summarizes the theory of psychological differentiation and reviews recent cross-cultural research on the roles of child rearing, culture, and ecology in the development of individual, group, and sex differences in the field dependence-field independence cognitive style component of psychological differentiation. (SS)

Cognitive style, the impulsivity-reflectivity dimension, is reviewed as an individual difference that does significantly affect a learning/teaching situation. Relevance of impulsivity-reflectivity for learners in a problem-solving situation is established. Conclusions emphasize the importance of this individual difference. (Author)

Examined developmental and individual differences in tendencies to favor analytic over heuristic responses in three tasks (inductive reasoning, deduction under belief bias conditions, probabilistic reasoning) in children varying in age and cognitive ability. Found significant increases in analytic responding with development on first two tasks.…

Results are reported from a study of the learning styles of 306 high school students. The study examined learning style characteristics (abstraction, concreteness, reflection, activity); comparisons between adolescent and adult learning styles; and differences between freshmen and seniors, males and females, and slow-track and fast-track learners.…

The purposes of this study were to investigate (1) the consistency among fifth-grade children in conceptual style across different conceptual style instruments and (2) the generalizability of conceptual style behavior to school related tasks when stability and instability of children's conceptual style were taken into consideration. Children…

Reviews research on the development of academic skills in arithmetic and early reading, emphasizing the individual cognitive processes occurring during learning. Offers implications for the development of new methods of assessment that stress processes, rather than just products. Suggests that researchers in cognitive development and assessment…