Cognitive Style Questionnaire Research Articles

Students' Mathematical Argumentation with the Visualizer Cognitive Style in Proving the Congruence of Triangles

The use of axiomatic deductiveism, perception problems, mathematical visual representations and how students convey arguments as a bridge in proving geometric problems are obstacles that are often faced by students. This research aims to describe how prospective mathematics teacher students who have a visualiser cognitive style convey their mathematical arguments in explaining proofs related to triangle congruence. The subjects of this research were selected from students who have a visualizer cognitive style who had previously been given a cognitive style questionnaire. The research subjects consisted of 3 subjects, each with high (S1), medium (S2) and low (S3) mathematics abilities. Data were analyzed using Toulmin argumentation components. The research results show that S1 provides proof based on correct claims, providing fairly complete data both from the question statement and additional data resulting from the subject's reasoning which is used to decide on the claim. The subject uses several warrants and is supported by logical backing to connect the data with the claim. For S2 and S3 to provide final answers or false claims, they have incomplete data as a basis for deciding claims because the subject is mistaken in representing the image and is deep in mathematical literacy related to errors in describing the visualization in the image.

Parental psychological maltreatment, negative cognitive style and psychological distress among Pakistani adolescents

ABSTRACT Negative perceptions within parent–child relationship has become a focus of research in recent psychological literature. Keeping this in view, the current paper aims to study how parental psychological maltreatment and negative cognitive style connect with psychological distress among Pakistani adolescents? Three hundred and seventy adolescents including 200 boys and 170 girls took part in the study. The mean age was 16.11 (SD = 1.54). Participants from different educational institutes filled in Psychological Maltreatment Experience Scale, Adolescent Cognitive Style Questionnaire – Short Form (Adapted version) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale. Findings of the study indicated that both parental psychological maltreatment and negative cognitive styles have strong association with psychological distress. The results emphasize the role of negative cognition in parent–child relationship and importance of reducing the hostile effects of parental maltreatment on youth’s mental health.

Mathematics Critical Thinking Ability of Elementary School Students Based On Cognitive Style and Self-Efficacy

Learning mathematics does not only teach mathematical concepts, but requires students to encourage critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are also 21st century skills that enable students to think reflectively and reason in making decisions. Several factors influence critical thinking, including cognitive style and self-efficacy. The purpose of this study was to analyze: (1) students' critical thinking skills with field dependent and field independent cognitive styles who have high self-efficacy. (2) students' critical thinking skills with field dependent and field independent cognitive styles have low self-efficacy. This research is a qualitative research using the phenomenological method in elementary schools throughout the Gayungan District. Subjects were selected from 14 elementary schools in Gayungan District. Through purposive sampling, students with a certain cognitive style and self-efficacy were selected. The method used in the form of questionnaires, tests, and interviews. The researcher as the main instrument, assisted by cognitive style and self-efficacy questionnaire instruments, critical thinking ability test questions, and interview guidelines. Data analysis used qualitative analysis and the validity of the data used the triangulation method.

Exploring Students’ Visual Thinking: Examining Students' Sequence And Series Analysis Through The Lens Of Visual Cognitive Styles

Visual thinking skill has an important role in solving mathematics problems. Visual thinking not only can be applied on the topic of geometry but also on the other topics including sequence and series. The visual cognitive styles have a relationship to mathematical abilities and types of tasks. This research aims to analyze the students’ visual thinking skill viewed by visual cognitive styles on the topic of sequence and series used grounded theory approach. The steps in this study are developing visual cognitive style questionnaire and visual thinking skill test, asking students to fill the questionnaire and do the test, and analyzing the results of questionnaires and students’ answer. The subjects of this research were 2 students at the eleventh grade (16-17 year-olds). The result showed that students with spatial visualization have better visual thinking skill than object visualization. Students with spatial visualization are very good at working on problems on indicators transforming problems or concepts into visual forms. Whereas, students with object visualization are very good at drawing for the nth term of a sequence. The analysis of this research can be used as material for consideration to make the learning design on the topic of sequence and series that is in accordance with the cognitive styles of students

Understanding online fake review production strategies

Extending the literature that has, thus far, mostly focused on the detection of fake online reviews, this paper explores a more fundamental yet hitherto-unanswered question: How do people go about creating fake reviews in the first place? To delve deeper, it further investigates the role of individuals’ cognitive style—the way one gathers, processes, structures, and applies information. While cognitive style was measured using a quantitative scale, a qualitative approach was adopted to explore fake review production strategies. Fifty participants imagined that they had been hired by a marketing agency to write fake reviews, completed the writing task, shared their experiences, and then filled out a cognitive style questionnaire. Writing fake reviews involved four stages: gathering information, assimilating information, drafting the fake review, and finalizing the fake review production. Through a cognitive lens, the paper uncovers three fake review production strategies and explains why someone would adopt a certain strategy.

Examining the relationship between student attributional style, perceived teacher fairness, and sense of school belonging

Teacher fairness is a major concern for secondary students and significantly influences their sense of school belonging. This study investigated the relationship between Australian secondary students’ perception of teacher fairness and school belonging, and the indirect effects of student attributional style on that relationship. A sample of 269 students was collected from online surveys, which used the Psychological Sense of School Membership, Teacher Justice Scale, and Adolescent Cognitive Style Questionnaire to measure the key variables. Correlational analysis (two-tailed) revealed a positive relationship between perceived teacher fairness and school belonging, r (269) = 0.47, p <.001, and a negative relationship between maladaptive student attributional style with perceived teacher fairness, r (269) = -0.18, p <.001, and school belonging, r (269) = -0.28, p <.001. Additionally, a multiple regression analysis found that the variability in both student attributional style and perceived teacher fairness jointly explained around 26% of the variability in school belonging. Moreover, student attributional style partly mediated the relationship between perceived teacher fairness and school belonging, with an estimated statistically significant indirect effect of 0.03 units and a dominant direct effect of 0.31 units. These results confirm perceived teacher fairness as an essential ingredient for a positive teacher-student relationship and sense of school belonging. Findings from this study provide implications for classroom justice research and highlight the potential for applying framing interventions to students’ perceptions of teacher fairness to improve teacher-student relationships and enhance students’ sense of school belonging.

Cerebro-Soft Skills of Higher Secondary Students

This study aimed to investigate the Cerebro-soft skill of higher secondary students which leads to whether the brain dominance of the students influences their thinking or thinking pattern and which leads to show, the problem-solving skills of the individual or not? This may have the possibility of predicting the creation of unified thinkers or a unique pattern of the people on its own. Cerebro-soft skills (Brain dominance, thinking styles and problem-solving skills) among higher secondary students do have an impact on their academic achievements. This study targeted the higher secondary students as population and Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thuthukudi and Virudhunagar districts of Tamilnadu, India as the areas from which the data was collected. In this research, the above-mentioned population consisted of 135 subjects for this study. Three unique questionnaires were used to collect the data i.e., the Cognitive style questionnaire (1989) by Loren D. Crane, thinking styles by Robert J Sternberg (2009) and Problem-solving skills by Vengo Regis and Annaraja (2010). The result of the study revealed that the significant impacts found with the residence of the students in their intuitive problem-solving skills and medium of instructions of the students in their right brain dominance, and type of schools of the students in their right brain dominance, sensing problem-solving skills and thinking problem-solving skills, the significant positive correlation co-efficient found between oligarchic thinking style and anarchic thinking style, hierarchic thinking style and anarchic thinking style, monarchic thinking style and anarchic thinking style which was 64.4%, 46.9%, 44% and 35.8% respectively.

Achievement Motivation and Students’ Achievement in Secondary Biology: Is the Relationship Mediated by Cognitive Style?

Scientific and technological skills are needed for survival and economic prosperity in the 21st century. However, students persistently perform poorly in science subjects at the senior secondary school level. Thus, this study determined the mediating influence of cognitive style on the relationship between academic motivation and students’ academic achievement in senior School Biology in Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State. The descriptive survey research design was adopted to conduct the research. The sample consisted of 180 students randomly selected from ten public senior secondary schools out of the 13 public schools present in the local government area. Data were collected using three instruments: Cognitive Style Questionnaire (r=0.71); Academic Motivation Scale (r=0.72); and Students’ Achievement Test in Biology (r=0.82). The data collected were analysed using regression and t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that cognitive styles significantly mediated the relationship between academic motivation and students’ academic achievement in Biology. It was also found that there was no significant difference in the mean achievement scores of field-dependent and field-independent learners. The study concluded that cognitive style is a potent factor in the learning of Biology in senior secondary school. Although students can be motivated to learn, aligning instructional activities with their cognitive style by biology teachers is more important than motivation. Therefore, school counsellors should always help to classify students into their cognitive styles at the beginning of the session to enable teachers to tailor instructional activities to meet their learning needs.

Импульсивность — рефлексивность и нейроэффективность интеллектуальной деятельности

A brief review of current research into the problem of cognitive neuroefficiency revealed a large array of conflicting data. Some studies provide evidence of lower energy consumption and faster cognitive activity in respondents with high IQ, while others show higher energy consumption and slower speed. Other datasets indicate that respondents with high intelligence are more reflexive than those with low intelligence. The heterogeneity of the samples is indicated as a key reason for the inconsistency of the data. This study aimed to compare behavioral and electroencephalographic data in groups of respondents homogeneous in terms of (a) sex, (b) age, and (c) manifestations of the cognitive style Impulsivity-Reflexivity. The study sample consisted of three age groups: 92 people aged 13.73 ± 0.45 years (44.5% of men), 123 people aged 15.46 ± 0.66 years (52% of men), 36 people aged 21.11±2.87 years (44.4% of men). The diagnostic procedure included the collection of behavioral data (Cognitive Personality Style Questionnaire CPS-Q, Raven’s SPM, Amtrhauer’s Intelligence Structure Test, Rusalov’s Personality Formal Dynamic Properties Questionnaire) and data on the bioelectrical activity of the cerebral cortex at rest and during the detection of similar figures J. Kagan. Comparative data analysis (U-test; H-test) showed that women demonstrate significantly higher intelligence indicators, detect similar figures with greater accuracy, but at the same time expend more energy in terms of the EEG power spectrum, compared with men. Significant differences in intelligence and Impulsivity-Reflexivity among age groups were not found. However, a significant decrease in the EEG power spectrum was revealed under electrodes O1, C3, Oz, Pz, CP4 while solving Kagan’s tasks from the younger to the older age group. A paradoxical result was obtained when comparing groups of respondents significantly different in terms of the Impulsivity-Reflexivity of the Kagan test. Significant differences in the EEG power spectrum, CPS-Q Impulsivity and Reflexivity scales, and intelligence were not found. A hypothesis was put forward about the false discriminant validity of the Kagan test for respondents with low IQ.

Assessing assistive devices for manipulation: Design universality and users' perception

Although alienation toward parents is important for children (for current mental health status or later interpersonal relationships in adulthood), it is undervalued and even lacks a standardized tool of assessment. Moreover, the large number of left-behind children in China is a cause of public concern. However, their experienced alienation toward their parents remains unclear, which may be important for early detection or intervention for behavioral problems in this population. Hence, the current study aimed to develop an alienation inventory for children and then use it to investigate the experienced alienation toward parents in Chinese left-behind children.Two studies were carried out. Study 1 was designed to develop a standard inventory of alienation toward parents (IAP). In study 2, 8361 children and adolescents (6704 of them were left-behind status) of the Chongqing area, aged between 8 and 19 years old, were recruited for investigation. All participants were surveyed with a standard sociodemographic questionnaire, children's cognitive style questionnaire, children's depression inventory, adolescent self-rating life events checklist, and newly built IAP in study 1.In study 1, we developed a two-component (communication and emotional distance) and 18-item (9 items for maternal or paternal form, respectively) IAP questionnaire. In study 2, exploratory factor analysis indicated an expected two-factor structure of IAP, which was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients showed a good reliability (0.887 and 0.821 for maternal and paternal form, respectively). Children with absent mother experienced the highest alienation toward parents. Boys as well as children aged 8–10 years old experienced higher alienation toward parents. Poor communication with parents (sparse or no connection), level of left-behind condition (parents divorced, been far away from parents), and psychosocial vulnerability (stressful life events, negative cognitive style) were risk factors of alienation toward parents.The current study develops a two-factor (communication and emotional distance) IAP, which offers a reliable tool to assess experienced alienation of affection toward parents in children aged between 8 and 19 years old. Our result is the first investigation of experienced alienation and potential influential factors in Chinese left-behind children. The findings that children with absent mother experience higher alienation toward parents, as well as three recognized risk factors for alienation of affection toward parents (poor communication with absent parents, worse left-behind condition, and psychosocial vulnerability), give valuable guidance for parents who intend to leave or who are already leaving as well as for government policymaking.

ANALYSIS OF STUDENT ERRORS IN SOLVING SPLDV QUESTIONS BASED ON CASTOLAN STAGES REVIEWED FROM STUDENTS' COGNITIVE STYLE

This study aims to determine the description of students' errors in solving SPLDV questions in terms of students' reflective and impulsive cognitive styles. This research is a qualitative research using a descriptive approach which was carried out at MTs Husnul Khatimah 02 Semarang in the 2020/2021 academic year. The subjects of this study were grade VIII students with reflective and impulsive cognitive styles. The instrument used is a cognitive style questionnaire, namely the Matching Familiar Figure Test (MFFT) developed by Warli, the SPLDV problem solving test and interview guidelines. Checking the validity of the data in this study is time triangulation. The indicator of student errors is based on the Kastolan stages, namely procedural errors, conceptual errors, and technical errors. The results of this study are students with an impulsive cognitive style tend to have more errors than students with a reflective cognitive style. Internal factors that cause errors are because students are less thorough, lack of practice questions, do not understand the prerequisite material, do not understand the concept of solving linear inequality problems of two variables, and do not understand the basic concepts of elimination and substitution methods, while the external factor is the lack of time given to students. so that students have not finished working on the questions

Adaptive and innovative students’ metacognition in solving logarithm tasks

Problem solving as approach in teaching and learning has important position to face students’ future. Students’ problem-solving skill and knowledge depend on several aspects, one of which is metacognition. Metacognition is the awareness of students in using their minds to plan, monitor, and evaluate the cognitive processes and strategies used. Students have different cognitive styles, including adaptive and innovative style. The selection of participants in this qualitative study used a cognitive style questionnaire to find students who had cognitive styles of adaptation and innovation. Data collection using task-based interviews about algorithms. Analysis of research results from the 10th grade students as participants used steps that are data reduction, data presentation, and verification, as well as checking data validity. The results showed that adaptive student at planning stage to understand the problem through reading effort, solve the logarithm problem using her knowledge directly, and plan to check the calculation, writing, and methods used. In monitoring stage, she did not estimate time consuming for solving problem. Student have not been confident yet that her plan was correct. She thinks that she has forgotten, although using methods for checking of solution was correct. Finally, at evaluation stage, adaptive students have no other way to understand problem, believes that his knowledge could help to solving problems, look back the plan that has been used, and she has no other way to re-examine his work. The innovative student has several similar stages with the adaptive student. She has estimated time consuming for solving logarithm problem and check calculation results, writing, and methods used. She has been confident using his method to understand problem, and check his work twice until it was correct. He has alternative strategy although the alternative is more complicated so it is not used.

A negative cognitive style is associated with greater insomnia and depression symptoms: The mediating role of sleep reactivity.

Insomnia and depression are distinct clinical phenomena, yet they are highly comorbid. One potential explanation for the high comorbidity rates is the overlap in risk factors. Atypical responses to stress, for example, place individuals at greater risk for both insomnia and depression. The goal of the present study was to simultaneously assess vulnerability to stress-related sleep disturbance (sleep reactivity) and the tendency to make negative attributions about stressful events (negative cognitive style), and how they relate to insomnia and depression. Study participants included 224 undergraduate students recruited from a large, public university in the United States. Sleep reactivity and negative cognitive style were assessed using the Ford Insomnia Response to Stress Test (FIRST) and the Cognitive Style Questionnaire (CSQ), respectively. Insomnia symptoms were assessed using the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Sleep reactivity was independently associated with greater insomnia and depression symptoms. Additionally, a negative cognitive style was related to greater depressive symptoms, and this effect was partially mediated by sleep reactivity. The current findings suggest that sleep reactivity may contribute to the development of disorders beyond insomnia. These findings further support the use of an interdisciplinary approach to investigating etiological models, and more specifically, the further exploration of how multiple stress responses (in terms of cognitions, sleep, etc.) place individuals at greater risk for developing psychopathology.

Effects of cognitive appraisal styles and feedback types on feedback acceptance and motivation for challenge

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of cognitive appraisal styles (i.e., threat vs. challenge) and feedback types on feedback acceptance and motivation for challenge. We used four feedback types based on valence (positive vs. negative) and orientation (person vs. task). Sixth-graders completed the cognitive appraisal style questionnaire and wrote an essay on their use of smartphones. One week after the writing, they received feedback, and their feedback acceptance and motivation for challenge were measured. Effective feedback types varied depending on students’ appraisal styles. The challenge style demonstrated the highest feedback acceptance for positive task-oriented feedback. Negative task-oriented feedback was the most effective for the threat style. The challenge style showed higher motivation for challenge when receiving positive task-oriented and negative person-oriented feedbacks, whereas the threat style did not. Educators should be encouraged to provide personalized feedback based on students’ cognitive appraisal styles to maximize feedback effects.

젊은 성인의 인지양식에 따른 국소 회빅질 부피의 개인차

Extant research has proposed that the Object-Spatial-Verbal cognitive style can elucidate individual differences in the preference for modality-specific information. However, no studies have yet ascertained whether this type of information processing evinces structural correlations in the brain. Therefore, the current study used voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analyses to investigate individual differences in gray matter volumes based on the Object-Spatial-Verbal cognitive style. For this purpose, ninety healthy young adults were recruited to participate in the study. They were administered the Korean version of the Object-Spatial-Verbal cognitive style questionnaire, and their anatomical brain images were scanned. The VBM results demonstrated that the participants’ verbal scores were positively correlated with regional gray matter volumes (rGMVs) in the right superior temporal sulcus/superior temporal gyrus, the bilateral parahippocampal gyrus/fusiform gyrus, and the left inferior temporal gyrus. In addition, the rGMVs in these regions were negatively correlated with the relative spatial preference scores obtained by individual participants. The findings of the investigation provide anatomical evidence that the verbal cognitive style could be decidedly relevant to higher-level language processing, but not to basic language processing.

Negative Cognitive Style and Cortisol Reactivity to a Laboratory Stressor: a Preliminary Study

According to the hopelessness theory of depression, some individuals have a cognitive vulnerability (i.e., negative cognitive style) that interacts with stressful life events to produce depression. A negative cognitive style is associated with a maladaptive cognitive response to stress (i.e., increased negative attributions); however, no study has assessed whether this cognitive vulnerability is also associated with a maladaptive endocrine (e.g., cortisol) response to stress. If shown to be related, individual differences in cognitive style may potentially explain why the literature on the association between cortisol stress reactivity and depression is mixed, as cortisol responses to stress may vary as a function of attributional style. The aim of the present study was to provide a preliminary test of whether cognitive vulnerability was related to cortisol reactivity to an acute laboratory stressor among a sample of young adults (n = 20; Mage = 23.1 years; 10 females). Negative cognitive style and depressive symptoms were assessed via the Cognitive Style Questionnaire and the Patient Health Questionnaire, respectively. All participants also completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Salivary cortisol was collected before, during, and after the TSST. Results showed a significant association between negative cognitive style and cortisol stress reactivity, such that a greater negative cognitive style was related to a larger cortisol response to the TSST. Post hoc analyses revealed that this association was moderated by gender (i.e., effect observed in males only). Cortisol responses to the TSST, in general, were lower among females, but this relationship was not moderated by cognitive style. These findings may be related to underlying gender differences in stress vulnerability, which may have clinical implications for understanding the interactive effect of cognitive and neuroendocrine processes on vulnerability and resiliency to depression.

Measuring cognitive vulnerability to depression: Further evidence on the factorial and predictive validity of negative cognitive style

Background and objectivesPrevious research has provided insufficient evidence on the factorial validity of the negative cognitive style questionnaires, which is a problem for the validity of the total score's computation. In Study 1, we focused on the relationship between internality and the other dimensions of negative cognitive style. In Study 2, we explored the predictive validity of negative cognitive style for negative interpretation bias. MethodsIn Study 1, 770 participants completed the Cognitive Style Questionnaire – Short Form (CSQ-SF). In Study 2, from a prescreening data collection (N = 300) we selected participants with low (N = 40) and high (N = 32) cognitive vulnerability to depression who were primed with negative mood induction and who completed a generative interpretation task. ResultsIn Study 1, a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the best fitting model for the CSQ-SF was a bifactor model without the internality dimension. In Study 2, a CFA replicated the factorial structure of Study 1 and individuals with a high negative cognitive style exhibited a negative interpretation bias after controlling for depressive symptoms. LimitationsThe university-age sample limited the generalizability of our results to different populations, and the lack of longitudinal data prevented us from discussing further implications on the relationship between the negative interpretation bias and negative cognitive style in predicting depression. ConclusionsTogether, the results of our two studies support the construct validity of the CSQ-SF and recommend the use of a composite score of negative cognitive style without internality.

Representasi Matematis Siswa Bergaya Kognitif Visualizer-Verbalizer dalam Menyelesaikan Soal Matematika TIMSS

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mendiskripsikan representasi matematis siswa bergaya kognitif visualizer-verbalizer dalam menyelesaikan soal TIMSS. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian deskriptif kualitatif. Pada penelitian ini terdiri dari 4 siswa dimana 2 diantaranya merupakan siswa bergaya kognitif visualizer rendah dan tinggi, dan 2 lainnya merupakan siswa bergaya kognitif verbalizer rendah dan tinggi. Intrumen pada penelitian ini adalah peneliti sendiri dan dibantu dengan lembar angket gaya kognitif, lembar tes soal TIMSS, dan Pedoman wawancara. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan yaitu berupa tes gaya kognitif, tes soal TIMSS , dan wawancara siswa. Adapun teknis analisi data yang digunakan yaitu reduksi data, penyajian data,dan penarik kesimpulan. Hasil peneltian ini yaitu bahwa Representasi matematis bergaya kognitif visualizer mampu mengerjakan soal dalam bentuk gambar atau ilustrasi dengan baik melalui tahapan-tahapan yang telah ditetapkan oleh peneliti, yaitu; ketertarikan pada soal sesuai gaya kognitifnya, memahami soal lebih ketimbang siswa yang bergaya konitif verbalizer, menggunakan cara penyelesaian lebih baik juga hingga mendekati kesempurnaan pada jawabannya. Representasi matematis siswa bergaya kognitif verbalizer mampu mengerjakan soal yang disajikan dengan soal cerita atau narasi lebih mudah memahami serta mampu menguraikan dengan baik serta mampu merepresentasikan dalam bahasa matematia.

Depressogenic Attributional Style and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese University Students: The Role of Rumination and Distraction

The objective of the current study was to test the hypothesis that rumination and distraction mediate the relationship between depressogenic attributional style and depressive symptoms. 1017 university students recruited from two universities (90.0% Han and 10.0% ethnic minority) in China, completed questionnaires that measured depressogenic attributional style (Cognitive Style Questionnaire), depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale) and rumination and distraction (Response Styles Questionnaire). Direct effects and the mediation model were evaluated via both linear regression analyses and Sobel tests. The rumination subscale of the RSQ was significantly positively correlated with the CESD and subscales of CSQ. However, the distraction subscale of the RSQ was significantly negatively correlated with the CESD and all subscales of the CSQ, except for the subscale of self. Higher levels of depressogenic attributional styles were associated with higher levels of rumination response style. In contrast, lower levels of CSQ-cause, CSQ-consequences, and CSQ-total were associated with higher levels of distraction response style. Higher levels of rumination response style were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. However, higher levels of distraction response style were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. The obtained results of Sobel tests confirmed that rumination partly mediated the relationship between depressogenic attributional style and depressive symptoms. The present results suggest that rumination but not distraction may mediate the relationship between depressogenic attributional style and depressive symptoms; additionally, rumination contributes to the negative outcomes of depressive symptoms.

Systemizing and the gender gap: examining academic achievement and perseverance in STEM

For years, a popular explanation for women choosing to abandon studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has been their lack of aptitude. This study challenged that notion by integrating theories of cognitive style, academic emotion, self-efficacy, and motivation to explain students’ academic achievement and perseverance in STEM when transitioning to college. A sample of 1597 high school and junior college students participated. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were first conducted to validate a reduced version of the cognitive style questionnaire. Structural equation modeling revealed that the cognitive style known as systemizing indirectly predicted STEM achievement and persistence by way of intrinsic motivation, learning anxiety, and self-efficacy, providing a new perspective for re-examining the gender gap in STEM.