Cognitive Styles and Preferred Learning Mode, Reading Attainment and Cognitive Ability in 11‐year‐old Children

Abstract

Eighty 11‐year‐old children were assessed for preferred learning mode (pictorial or text), reading attainment and cognitive ability. They also received the Cognitive Styles Analysis which gave their positions on the Wholist‐Analytic and verbal‐Imagery cognitive style dimensions. With respect to learning mode, wholists preferred the mode which corresponded to their verbal‐imagery style; verbalisers chose text while Imagers chose pictures. Analytics, by contrast, were fairly equally divided across the verbal‐imagery dimension. On reading attainment and cognitive abilities, the performance of the wholists was superior by the verbalisers and declined fairly linearly with increasing imagery style, while analytics were again fairly constant across the dimension. The results were discussed in terms of their implications for the cognitive style dimensions.