Cognitive Styles in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Abstract Cognitive style is a psychological construct used in research concentrating on functional components of cognitive processes, particularly how they affect an individual's mental, personality and social behaviors. These functional components are manifested in an individual's perceptual and intellectual experiences in a highly consistent and pervasive manner. A dimension of cognitive style is field-dependence-independence, which denotes the individuals' spatial orientation. Individuals with a more field-dependent cognitive style differ from those with a more field-independent cognitive style. Most of these differences are perceptual, intellectual and personality traits. Studies on cognitive style provide insight to a wide array of psychological issues including intellectual development, concept attainment and modifiability of cognitive style. These issues relating cognitive style are among the most promising and exciting prospects for strategies to assist young children to function successfully in s...