Evaluation of the reliability and validity of the cognitive styles analysis

Abstract

The most frequently used computerized measure of cognitive styles is Riding's Cognitive Styles Analysis (CSA). Although CSA is not well known in North American institutions, it is quite popular among European universities and organizations. Unlike many other measures of cognitive style inventories, CSA has been under substantial empirical investigation. After investigating several cognitive style inventories the authors found the structure and the theoretical support of (CSA) to be more powerful than that of others. However, no empirical research has been conducted on the reliability of CSA. In this project three different experiments were conducted with three different samples to investigate the reliability of CSA. In all three experiments the reliability was shown to be low. Considering the profound theoretical background of CSA, and also regarding the difference in the reliability of the two dimensions of the test, some suggestions are presented in this paper to improve the validity and reliability of CSA. The authors expect that these comments and suggestions would be useful not only for improving CSA, but also for designing any other cognitive or learning style test.