The Matter of Style: Manifestations of Personality in Cognition, Learning, and Teaching

Abstract

The historical roots of cognitive styles are traced in differential psychology, psychoanalytic ego psychology, gestalt and cognitive-developmental psychology to illuminate the varied theoretical issues that energize (and fragment) style research. Optimal measurement of cognitive styles as information-processing regularities and as intraindividual contrasts of abilities or other attributes is discussed in terms of both typical performance and contrasted performance on measures of opposing ends of bipolar style dimensions, with special emphasis on the contrasted measurement of field independence versus field dependence. The role of styles as both performance variables and competence variables in learning and teaching is examined, as are various critiques of style research that appear to be excessively polarized in either supporting or undercutting styles as meaningful constructs. This polarization appears to reflect different stances not just with respect to scientific evidence but with respect to ideology. Concluding remarks broach the issue of how styles are organized, not just within an information-processing framework but within the structure of personality. THE MATTER OF STYLE: MANIFESTATIONS OF PERSONALITY IN COGNITION, LEARNING, AND TEACHING 1 Samuel Messick Educational Testing ServiceAll human activity displays both substance and style. However, because each act is intrinsically integral, these two aspects may be separated only by means of somewhat arbitrary, if not· artificial, distinctions. Nonetheless, this separation is fundamental in psychology because an individual's style of functioning creates a force field affecting both the interpretation of substantive processes and the appraisal of performance levels. This follows from Allport's (1961) dictum that style reflects "the oblique mirroring of personal traits" (p. 462). These personality attributes sometimes extend and enhance the substantive or content aspects of performance and sometimes distort and interfere with substantive functioning, depending on the nature and intensity of the personality characteristics operative stylistically.The basic distinction between substance and style contrasts the content and level of performance --the questions of What? and How much? --with the manner or form of performance --the question of How? Emphasis on performance levels in particular content areas has led to the delineation of psychological dimensions or traits largely in content terms, such as numerical ability, 1An edited version of this paper was presented as the 1993 E. L.Thorndike Award Address at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, August, 1993. Thanks are due to Walter Emmerich, Ann Jungeblut, and Philip Oltman for their comments on the manuscript. Special thanks also go to Douglas N. Jackson, Jr. and Nathan Kogan, whose stimulating interactions with me over the years helped to shape and refine my views on the matter of style.This address is dedicated in memory of four mentors and colleagues who taught me, ea...

The Development of Absolute Pitch: A Theory Concerning the Roles of Music Training at an Early Developmental Age and Individual Cognitive Style

“…The role of cognitive style in the development of absolute pitch A cognitive style is a general, non-conscious preference for processing information in a particular way (Messick, 1994). Although the field of research on cognitive style has a complex history, our discussion here is limited to individual differences in field dependence-independence and breadth of attention.…”

Personality and the psychology of learning

“…Space does not permit us to review all these styles here. The interested reader is referred to excellent reviews, such as those by Messick (1994) and Grigorenko and Sternberg (1995). I will briefly review the literature on cognitive styles, learning styles, personality styles, and thinking styles, focusing on the theory behind the various conceptualizations.…”

“…This resulted in a diversity of conceptualizations and a wide display of cognitive style tests. Messick (1994) identified as many as 19 cognitive styles, of which 'field independence-field dependence', 'reflection-impulsivity', 'levellingsharpening', 'category width', and 'conceptual style' are the most cited ones.…”

“…reflect when doing a mathematics assignment and react impulsively when doing a foreign language task). As Messick (1994) explained, a person's score on a cognitive style test should reflect the relative strength of his or her ability in relation to one pole of the style dimension (e.g. impulsivity) contrasted with the relative strength of his ability in relation to the other dimension (reflection).…”

“…Secondly, cognitive style studies were mostly empirically driven without a sound theory to guide research. Although several attempts at integration have been undertaken (for reviews, see Grigorenko and Sternberg, 1995;Messick, 1994) there is still a strong need for a classification of the various cognitive styles according to their similarities and dissimilarities. The general principles that connect the cognitive styles should be identified, and the relevance of these principles for behaviour in specific domains should be outlined.…”