Individual Differences In Cognitive Style Research Articles

Towards Personally Relevant Navigation: The Differential Effects of Cognitive Style and Map Orientation on Spatial Knowledge Development

Under emergencies such as floods and fires or during indoor navigation where cues from local landmarks and a Global Positioning System (GPS) are no longer available, the acquisition of comprehensive environmental representation becomes particularly important. Several studies demonstrated that individual differences in cognitive style might play an important role in creating a complete environmental representation and spatial navigation. However, this relationship between cognitive style and spatial navigation is not well researched. This study hypothesized that a specific type of map orientation (north-up vs. forward-up) might be more efficient for individuals with different cognitive styles. Forty participants were recruited to perform spatial tasks in a virtual maze environment to understand how cognitive style may relate to spatial navigation abilities, particularly the acquisition of survey and route knowledge. To measure survey knowledge, pointing direction tests and sketch map tests were employed, whereas, for route knowledge, the landmark sequencing test and route retracing test were employed. The results showed that both field-dependent and field-independent participants showed more accurate canonical organization in their sketch map task with a north-up map than with a forward-up map, with field-independent participants outperforming field-dependent participants in canonical organization scores. The map orientation did not influence the performance of Field-Independent participants on the pointing direct test, with field-dependent participants showing higher angular error with north-up maps. Regarding route knowledge, field-independent participants had more accurate responses in the landmark sequencing tests with a north-up map than with a forward-up map. On the other hand, field-dependent participants had higher accuracy in landmark sequencing tests in the forward-up map condition than in the north-up map condition. In the route retracing test, however, the map orientation had no statistically significant effect on different cognitive style groups. The results indicate that cognitive style may affect the relationship between map orientation and spatial knowledge acquisition.

Active versus Passive Strategy in Online Creativity Training: How to Best Promote Creativity of Students with Different Cognitive Styles?

While online education has become a new trend for knowledge acquisition and skill development, empirical studies on the effectiveness of online creativity training are scarce and the findings are inconclusive. In the current study, we investigated whether individual differences in cognitive style (i.e., FD-field dependence, FI-field independence) influence learners’ performance in online creativity training. The literature suggests that when processing information, FD learners tend to prefer inductive learning and rely on external references while the FI learners are more likely to prefer deductive learning and rely on internal reference. A three-day online training was developed and delivered to participants via either the active or the passive training strategy. This study was a pre-posttest between-subjects design, and three creativity tasks (AUT-alternative uses task, visual imagination task, and the design problem) were used to measure participants’ creative performance. The MANOVA results showed a significant interaction effects that FD participants greatly improved on performance of the AUT and the design problem after exposing to the active training compared to the passive training, whereas the FI participants did not show improvement. Besides, the FD participants reported positive training experiences (preference and motivation) on the active training strategy while the FI participants didn't seem to differ in their experiences of different training strategies. The current findings implicate that instructor and teachers should be aware of the individual differences while designing creativity training materials/courses in digital as well as real-life contexts.

The jigsaw puzzle of fraudulent health claims: Missing psychological pieces.

Fraudulent health claims have become an inescapable fixture of the contemporary information (or misinformation) landscape. MacFarlane, Hurlstone, and Ecker (2020) provided a five-fold framework for conceptualizing susceptibility to fraudulent health claims, and proposed potential remedies for each driver of these claims. We build on their analysis by arguing that a complete account of fraudulent health claim susceptibility additionally requires a thoroughgoing consideration of (a) individual differences in cognitive styles and personality traits, (b) innumeracy and statistical illiteracy, and (c) persuasive appeals involving logical fallacies and commonplaces. We further contend that dual processing models of cognition may help to synthesize a variety of psychological variables relevant to fraudulent health claim vulnerability. In conjunction with our commentary, MacFarlane's framework underscores the broader point that complex, multifactorial psychological phenomena demand complex, multifactorial psychological explanations and solutions.

Increased grey matter volume of the right superior temporal gyrus in healthy children with autistic cognitive style: A VBM study

The empathizing–systemizing model describes human cognitive style using empathizing (the drive to identify another’s mental state and respond appropriately) and systemizing (the drive to assess or construct rule-based systems). ‘Brain type’ was envisioned to explain individual differences in cognitive style based on the discrepancy of the two drives. In this model, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental disorder, have extremely stronger systemizing. Revealing the underlying mechanisms of individual differences in cognitive style might contribute to elucidation of the pathology of ASD. We used voxel-based morphometry to compare the brain structures among the brain types (those who have stronger empathizing, those who have equally stronger drive to both, and those who have stronger systemizing) in 207 healthy children (age range: 5–15). Results showed that children with stronger systemizing had significantly greater grey matter volume of the right superior temporal gyrus (rSTG) than the others. The brain region, a distinctive brain structure of those with stronger systemizing, was overlapped with that of children with ASD. The rSTG is involved in detailed perceptual processing in social cognition, which is partially related to stronger systemizing. Our results contribute to elucidation of the underlying mechanisms of individual differences in cognitive style.

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.

Individual differences in relational reasoning.

Various forms of relational processing have been linked to cognitive capacity measures, such as working memory and fluid intelligence. However, previous work has not established the extent to which different forms of relational processing reflect common factors, nor whether individual differences in cognitive style also contribute to variations in relational reasoning. The current study took an individual-differences approach to investigate the prerequisites for relational processing. In two studies, college students completed a battery of standardized tests of individual differences related to fluid intelligence and cognitive style, as well as a series of experimental tasks that require relational reasoning. Moderate correlations were obtained between relational processing and measures of cognitive capacity. Questionnaire measures of cognitive style generally did not improve predictions of relational processing beyond the influence of measures of cognitive capacity.

Customizing Semantics for Individuals With Attitudinal HFLTS Possibility Distributions

Linguistic computational techniques based on hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (HFLTS) have been swiftly advanced on various fronts over the past five years. However, one critical issue in the existing theoretical development is that modeling possibility distribution based semantics involves a relatively strict constraint that linguistic terms are uniformly distributed across an HFLTS. Releasing the constraint of uniform HFLTS through which individual semantics could be customized is challenging yet intriguing for participants interested in this topic. Comparative linguistic expressions (CLEs) generated from context-free grammar facilitate flexible and accurate linguistic elicitation, and in consideration of computational simplicity, are transformed into HFLTSs that are machine manipulatable. It is imperative that the precision of customized individual semantics can be significantly improved with respect to different CLEs. This study proposes a novel possibility computation structure for HFLTS possibility distributions based on the linguistic terms similarity measure. The uniquely established linguistic terms in each and every CLE are initially treated as referential items for comparison. Then, possibilities of linguistic terms in a transformed HFLTS can be calculated as their similarity degrees to the predetermined referential item. Subsequently, the interweaving method in which a consistent inner interweaving matrix needs to be constructed is adopted for attitudinal characters to attain appealing degrees characterized in the unit interval. The generated attitudinal HFLTS possibility distributions provide a solution to the problem of modeling individually the semantic implications of CLEs. Several illustrative examples and comparative analyses further demonstrate that individual semantics endowed with attitudinal character model efficiently individual differences in cognitive styles.

Making sense of credibility in complex information environments: the role of message sidedness, information source, and thinking styles in credibility evaluation online

ABSTRACT An experiment using a representative sample of US. Internet users in the context of online encyclopedias is conducted to understand how the type of information source (expert-generated, user-generated, or hybrid [both expert- and user-generated]) and message sidedness (one- versus two-sided) affect perceived information credibility. Additionally, individual differences in cognitive styles, including need for cognition and flexible thinking, are hypothesized to moderate these relationships. Results showed that expert-generated messages are regarded as most credible, whereas two-sided messages were only perceived as more credible than one-sided messages when originating from a hybrid source. Moreover, the effect of message sidedness is stronger among people with higher flexible thinking, but not among those with high need for cognition. This study extends knowledge of source type to include the diversity of possibilities available online today, clarifies how message sidedness and type of information source affect the perceived credibility of online information, and offers new insight into how individual psychological differences affect the evaluation of online information credibility, including the identification of flexible thinking as an important variable in this domain. Results of this study help to clarify how people navigate the wide diversity of information options available today in efforts to locate credible information to guide their attitudes and behaviors.

Analyzing Individual Differences in Creative Performance: A Case Study on the Combinational Ideation Method in the Interior Design Process

Research on creative performance indicates that a combination of the primary sources such as known concepts and existing ideas plays an important role in the generation of new ideas. Although studies show a link between the combinational approach to ideation and creativity, how individual differences in cognitive styles are related to this approach is not well understood. This exploratory study examines the domain–specific relationship between individuals’ cognitive styles and improvement of creative performance within the structured combinational ideation process where mixing various ideas is encouraged. Fifty interior design students enrolled in the second year of an interior design program at a Midwestern university participated in this study. The workshop designed for this study was structured in the following stages: initial design (ID) + the combinational ideation process (the variation process [VP] + the combination process [CP]) + final design (FD). The participants’ creative performance was measured at the ID and the FD phases by three experts. Findings indicated that intuitive individuals generally showed the highest creativity in the ID phase, but they showed a decrease of creativity in the FD, implying that a structured combinational ideation method might not be the best method for intuitive individuals. In contrast, individuals possessing an adaptive and an analytical information processing style showed an increase of creativity in the FD after completing the structured combinational ideation process, suggesting that students with a nonintuitive cognitive style benefit most from this method. The result of this research will provide design educators with meaningful insight into the instruction methods that take students’ cognitive styles into consideration, especially in helping nonintuitive students who struggle in the ideation process.

Cognitive Style and Frame Susceptibility in Decision-Making.

The susceptibility of decision-makers’ choices to variations in option framing has been attributed to individual differences in cognitive style. According to this view, individuals who are prone to a more deliberate, or less intuitive, thinking style are less susceptible to framing manipulations. Research findings on the topic, however, have tended to yield small effects, with several studies also being limited in inferential value by methodological drawbacks. We report two experiments that examined the value of several cognitive-style variables, including measures of cognitive reflection, subjective numeracy, actively open-minded thinking, need for cognition, and hemispheric dominance, in predicting participants’ frame-consistent choices. Our experiments used an isomorph of the Asian Disease Problem and we manipulated frames between participants. We controlled for participants’ sex and age, and we manipulated the order in which choice options were presented to participants. In Experiment 1 (N = 190) using an undergraduate sample and in Experiment 2 (N = 316) using a sample of Amazon Mechanical Turk workers, we found no significant effect of any of the cognitive-style measures taken on predicting frame-consistent choice, regardless of whether we analyzed participants’ binary choices or their choices weighted by the extent to which participants preferred their chosen option over the non-chosen option. The sole factor that significantly predicted frame-consistent choice was framing: in both experiments, participants were more likely to make frame-consistent choices when the frame was positive than when it was negative, consistent with the tendency toward risk aversion in the task. The present findings do not support the view that individual differences in people’s susceptibility to framing manipulations can be substantially accounted for by individual differences in cognitive style.

Influence of consumers' cognitive style on results from projective mapping

Projective mapping (PM), one of the most holistic product profiling methods in approach, is increasingly being used to uncover consumers' perception of products and packages. Assessors rely on a process of synthesis for evaluating product information, which would determine the relative importance of the perceived characteristics they use for mapping them. Individual differences are expected, as participants are not instructed on the characteristics to consider for evaluating the degree of difference among samples, generating different perceptual spaces. Individual differences in cognitive style can affect synthesis processes and thus their perception of similarities and differences among samples. In this study, the influence of the cognitive style in the results of PM was explored. Two consumer studies were performed, one aimed at describing intrinsic sensory characteristics of chocolate flavoured milk and the other one looking into extrinsic (package only) of blueberry yogurts. Consumers completed the wholistic-analytic module of the extended Verbal Imagery Cognitive Styles Test & Extended Cognitive Style Analysis-Wholistic Analytic Test, to characterize their cognitive style. Differences between wholistic and analytic consumers in how they evaluated samples using projective mapping were found in both studies. Analytics separated the samples more in the PM perceptual space than wholistic consumers, showing more discriminating abilities. This may come from a deeper analysis of the samples, both from intrinsic and extrinsic point of views. From a sensory perspective (intrinsic), analytic consumers relied on more sensory characteristics, while wholistic mainly discriminated samples according to sweetness and bitterness/chocolate flavour. In the extrinsic study however, even if analytic consumers discriminated more between packs, they described the products using similar words in the descriptive step.One important recommendation coming from this study is the need to consider higher dimensions in the interpretation of projective mapping tasks, as the first dimensions could underestimate the complexity of the perceptual space; currently, most applications of PM consider two dimensions only, which may not uncover the perception of specific groups of consumers.

Verbalizing, visualizing, and navigating: The effect of strategies on encoding a large-scale virtual environment.

Using novel virtual cities, we investigated the influence of verbal and visual strategies on the encoding of navigation-relevant information in a large-scale virtual environment. In 2 experiments, participants watched videos of routes through 4 virtual cities and were subsequently tested on their memory for observed landmarks and their ability to make judgments regarding the relative directions of the different landmarks along the route. In the first experiment, self-report questionnaires measuring visual and verbal cognitive styles were administered to examine correlations between cognitive styles, landmark recognition, and judgments of relative direction. Results demonstrate a tradeoff in which the verbal cognitive style is more beneficial for recognizing individual landmarks than for judging relative directions between them, whereas the visual cognitive style is more beneficial for judging relative directions than for landmark recognition. In a second experiment, we manipulated the use of verbal and visual strategies by varying task instructions given to separate groups of participants. Results confirm that a verbal strategy benefits landmark memory, whereas a visual strategy benefits judgments of relative direction. The manipulation of strategy by altering task instructions appears to trump individual differences in cognitive style. Taken together, we find that processing different details during route encoding, whether due to individual proclivities (Experiment 1) or task instructions (Experiment 2), results in benefits for different components of navigation-relevant information. These findings also highlight the value of considering multiple sources of individual differences as part of spatial cognition investigations. (PsycINFO Database Record

Generating HFLTS possibility distribution with an embedded assessing attitude

Possibility distribution provides an alternative explanation of linguistic terms in an hesitant fuzzy linguistic term set (HFLTS). It is generated from a given HFLTS based on the assumption that all linguistic terms in an HFLTS follow a uniform distribution. In decision making contexts, linguistic terms in each HFLTS are assumed to exhibit the same possibility to represent the decision-maker(DM)’s assessment rating. However, DMs may give ratings based on different assessing attitudes because of individual differences in cognitive styles. In practice, comparative linguistic expressions are generally converted into HFLTSs through the transformation process as DMs usually use comparative linguistic expressions instead of HFLTSs when giving ratings. The transformed HFLTSs likewise exclude the DMs’ assessing attitudes. To enhance the interpretability of generated possibility distributions, this paper relaxes the original assumption of uniform distribution and incorporates an attitudinal dimension into the transformation process that converts comparative linguistic expressions to HFLTSs. With these modified conditions for possibility distribution generation, an assessing attitude-driven approach is proposed based on probability density functions (PDFs) to generate HFLTS possibility distributions. The proposed PDF-based HFLTS possibility distributions personalize individual semantics and further facilitate the process of computing with words to obtain assessing attitude-embedded accurate linguistic results that are easy for individuals to interpret and understand.

Are neoliberals more susceptible to bullshit?

AbstractWe conducted additional analyses of Pennycook et al.’s (2015, Study 2) data to investigate the possibility that there would be ideological differences in “bullshit receptivity” that would be explained by individual differences in cognitive style and ability. As hypothesized, we observed that endorsement of neoliberal, free market ideology was significantly but modestly associated with bullshit receptivity. In addition, we observed a quadratic association, which indicated that ideological moderates were more susceptible to bullshit than ideological extremists. These relationships were explained, in part, by heuristic processing tendencies, faith in intuition, and lower verbal ability. Results are inconsistent with approaches suggesting that (a) there are no meaningful ideological differences in cognitive style or reasoning ability, (b) simplistic, certainty-oriented cognitive styles are generally associated with leftist (vs. rightist) economic preferences, or (c) simplistic, certainty-oriented cognitive styles are generally associated with extremist (vs. moderate) preferences. Theoretical and practical implications are briefly addressed.

Towards systemic and individualized brain markers for learning difficulties

Towards systemic and individualized brain markers for learning difficulties

Multi-criteria group individual research output evaluation based on context-free grammar judgments with assessing attitude

Individual research output (IRO) evaluation is a multi-criteria problem often conducted in groups. In practice, it is necessary to concurrently apply both bibliometric measures and peer review when evaluating the IRO. During the peer review process, different evaluators may use different linguistic terms because of individual differences in cognitive styles, and therefore, they may give ratings based on different assessing attitudes. Further, the weights between bibliometric measures and peer subjective judgments are difficult to determine. Motivated by these difficulties, this paper proposes a quantitative context-free grammar judgment description with an embedded assessing attitude. The proposed method quantitatively handles the assessing attitude and increases the flexibility of the linguistic information. Accordingly, this paper develops a multi-criteria group IRO evaluation method with context-free grammar judgments which concurrently considers bibliometric measures and peer review opinions. To overcome the weighting difficulties and achieve the maximum consensus, this paper proposes a distance-based method to determine the evaluators' weights and a weighted averaging operator to compute the criteria weights. After that, a TOPSIS-based aggregation method is applied to aggregate the objective and subjective ratings. A practical case study is then used to test the feasibility of the methodology. Finally, we discuss the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Thinking Styles and Regret in Physicians.

BackgroundDecision-making relies on both analytical and emotional thinking. Cognitive reasoning styles (e.g. maximizing and satisficing tendencies) heavily influence analytical processes, while affective processes are often dependent on regret. The relationship between regret and cognitive reasoning styles has not been well studied in physicians, and is the focus of this paper.MethodsA regret questionnaire and 6 scales measuring individual differences in cognitive styles (maximizing-satisficing tendencies; analytical vs. intuitive reasoning; need for cognition; intolerance toward ambiguity; objectivism; and cognitive reflection) were administered through a web-based survey to physicians of the University of South Florida. Bonferroni’s adjustment was applied to the overall correlation analysis. The correlation analysis was also performed without Bonferroni’s correction, given the strong theoretical rationale indicating the need for a separate hypothesis. We also conducted a multivariate regression analysis to identify the unique influence of predictors on regret.Results165 trainees and 56 attending physicians (age range 25 to 69) participated in the survey. After bivariate analysis we found that maximizing tendency positively correlated with regret with respect to both decision difficulty (r=0.673; p<0.001) and alternate search strategy (r=0.239; p=0.002). When Bonferroni’s correction was not applied, we also found a negative relationship between satisficing tendency and regret (r=-0.156; p=0.021). In trainees, but not faculty, regret negatively correlated with rational-analytical thinking (r=-0.422; p<0.001), need for cognition (r=-0.340; p<0.001), and objectivism (r=-0.309; p=0.003) and positively correlated with ambiguity intolerance (r=0.285; p=0.012). However, after conducting a multivariate regression analysis, we found that regret was positively associated with maximizing only with respect to decision difficulty (r=0.791; p<0.001), while it was negatively associated with satisficing (r=-0.257; p=0.020) and objectivism (r=-0.267; p=0.034). We found no statistically significant relationship between regret and overall accuracy on conditional inferential tasks.ConclusionRegret in physicians is strongly associated with their tendency to maximize; i.e. the tendency to consider more choices among abundant options leads to more regret. However, physicians who exhibit satisficing tendency – the inclination to accept a “good enough” solution – feel less regret. Our observation that objectivism is a negative predictor of regret indicates that the tendency to seek and use empirical data in decision-making leads to less regret. Therefore, promotion of evidence-based reasoning may lead to lower regret.

Neural correlates of cognitive style and flexible cognitive control

Human abilities of flexible cognitive control are associated with appropriately regulating the amount of cognitive control required in response to contextual demands. In the context of conflicting situations, for instance, the amount of cognitive control increases according to the level of previously experienced conflict, resulting in optimized performance. We explored whether the amount of cognitive control in conflict resolution was related to individual differences in cognitive style that were determined with the Object–Spatial–Verbal cognitive style questionnaire. In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, a version of the color–word Stroop task, which evokes conflict between color and verbal components, was employed to explore whether individual preferences for distracting information were related to the increases in neural conflict adaptation in cognitive control network regions. The behavioral data revealed that the more the verbal style was preferred, the greater the conflict adaptation effect was observed, especially when the current trial type was congruent. Consistent with the behavioral data, the imaging results demonstrated increased neural conflict adaptation effects in task-relevant network regions, including the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, left fusiform gyrus, and left precuneus, as the preference for verbal style increased. These results provide new evidence that flexible cognitive control is closely associated with individuals' preference of cognitive style.

A Personalized User Authentication Approach Based on Individual Differences in Information Processing

An effective user authentication mechanism should embrace both security and usability aspects as its purpose is to ensure safety of operation of online services but as well usability and transparency to its end users. In an attempt to improve the usability and overall experience of user interactions during authentication, this paper proposes an alternative approach of personalizing user authentication tasks based on individual differences in cognitive processing. The presented approach is mainly driven by theories on individual differences in cognitive styles which argue that individuals recall and process textual and graphical information differently. In this realm, the paper presents a 4-month user study in which 153 participants interacted with a personalized user authentication mechanism in an ecological valid context. Analysis of results shows that the presented user authentication approach is a promising alternative to current state of user authentication practices.

Evaluation of Physicians' Cognitive Styles.

Patient outcomes critically depend on accuracy of physicians' judgment, yet little is known about individual differences in cognitive styles that underlie physicians' judgments. The objective of this study was to assess physicians' individual differences in cognitive styles relative to age, experience, and degree and type of training. Physicians at different levels of training and career completed a web-based survey of 6 scales measuring individual differences in cognitive styles (maximizing v. satisficing, analytical v. intuitive reasoning, need for cognition, intolerance toward ambiguity, objectivism, and cognitive reflection). We measured psychometric properties (Cronbach's α) of scales; relationship of age, experience, degree, and type of training; responses to scales; and accuracy on conditional inference task. The study included 165 trainees and 56 attending physicians (median age 31 years; range 25-69 years). All 6 constructs showed acceptable psychometric properties. Surprisingly, we found significant negative correlation between age and satisficing (r = -0.239; P = 0.017). Maximizing (willingness to engage in alternative search strategy) also decreased with age (r = -0.220; P = 0.047). Number of incorrect inferences negatively correlated with satisficing (r = -0.246; P = 0.014). Disposition to suppress intuitive responses was associated with correct responses on 3 of 4 inferential tasks. Trainees showed a tendency to engage in analytical thinking (r = 0.265; P = 0.025), while attendings displayed inclination toward intuitive-experiential thinking (r = 0.427; P = 0.046). However, trainees performed worse on conditional inference task. Physicians capable of suppressing an immediate intuitive response to questions and those scoring higher on rational thinking made fewer inferential mistakes. We found a negative correlation between age and maximizing: Physicians who were more advanced in their careers were less willing to spend time and effort in an exhaustive search for solutions. However, they appeared to have maintained their "mindware" for effective problem solving.