The Development and Validation of the Rational and Intuitive Decision Styles Scale

Decision styles reflect the typical manner by which individuals make decisions. The purpose of this research was to develop and validate a decision style scale that addresses conceptual and psychometric problems with current measures. The resulting 10-item scale captures a broad range of the rational and intuitive styles construct domain. Results from 5 independent samples provide initial support for the dimensionality and reliability of the new scale, as demonstrated by a clear factor structure and high internal consistency. In addition, our results show evidence of convergent and discriminant validity through expected patterns of correlations across decision-making individual differences and the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) Big Five traits. Research domains that would benefit from incorporating the concept of decision styles are discussed.     

Not All Great Minds Think Alike: Systematic and Intuitive Cognitive Styles

Individuals process information and make decisions in different ways. Some plan carefully and analyze information systematically, whereas others follow their instincts and do what “feels right.” We aimed to deepen our understanding of the meaning of the intuitive versus systematic cognitive styles. Study 1 (N = 130, 39% female, M_age = 24) compared cognitive styles of arts, accounting, and mathematics students. Cognitive styles were associated with values (Study 2: N = 154, 123, 78; female = 59%, 49%, 85.9%; M_age = 22, 23, 27) and traits (Study 3: N = 77, 140, 151; female = 59%, 66%, 46%; M_age = 22, 25, 23), and they interacted with experience in predicting performance (Study 4: N = 63, 48% female, M_age = 23; Study 5: N = 44, 39% female, M_age = 23). All participants were Caucasian Israeli students. The systematic style was most frequent among accountants, and the intuitive style was most frequent among artists, validating the meaning of the styles. Systematic style was positively correlated with Conscientiousness and with security values and negatively correlated with stimulation values. The intuitive style had the opposite pattern and was also positively correlated with Extraversion. Experience improved rule‐based performance among systematic individuals but had no effect on intuitive ones. Cognitive style is consistent with other personal attributes (traits and values), with implications for decision making and task performance.     

Individual Differences in Cognitive Editing Standards

This study is aimed at understanding how people edit their own arguments prior to uttering them (Hample, 1984; Hample & Dallinger, 1985a, 1985b). The main categories of editorial criteria are effectiveness, principled objection to type of argument, person-centered issues, and discourse competence standards. Our main purpose here is to begin an account of what sort of person prefers which criteria. Argumentativeness (Infante & Rancer, 1982), verbal aggression (Infante & Wigley, 1986), interpersonal orientation (Swap & Rubin, 1983), and respondent gender are associated with use of editorial criteria. Results point to two different approaches to editing one's own arguments. The task orientation focuses on effectiveness, and is taken by males, and by people high in verbal aggressiveness and low in interpersonal orientation. The relational orientation is taken by females, and by people low in verbal aggressiveness and high in argument avoidance and interpersonal orientation. Justification for using multiple arguments to instantiate each type of argument, and for using multiple situations was also found.     

On Assessing Individual Differences in Rumination on Sadness

The Rumination on Sadness Scale (RSS), an individual-difference measure of rumination on sadness, was developed as an alternative to the Ruminative Responses scale of the Response Styles Questionnaire (RRRSQ; Nolen-Hoeksema & Morrow, 1991). Research has shown the RRRSQ to consist of multiple, not highly intercorrelated factors; only 1 factor explicitly addresses rumination. In Study 1, a 1-factor solution to a principal components analysis was shown to hold for responses to the RSS. The RSS was also shown to be reliable. In Study 2, convergent and discriminant validity of the RSS were assessed. In Study 3, individuals with high RSS scores exhibited more distress regarding current concerns with the introduction of a delay period (to allow them to ruminate) after a sad mood induction.     

A Place for Individual Differences in What Everyone Knows About What Everyone Does: Positive Affect,Cognitive Processes,and Cognitive Experiential Self Theory

Individual differences are often incorporated into experimental research to elucidate inconsistent effects. We argue that the inclusion of such differences into established and seemingly straightforward findings is imperative to the goal of reaching a more complete understanding about the processes of interest. Drawing on research on the cognitive effects of positive affect, we illustrate how integrating individual differences in cognitive processing styles to this literature might lead to a more nuanced understanding of the impact of affect on cognitive processes. The addition of individual differences to psychological research should be seen as a means to a thorough scientific comprehension of a topic rather than as burdensome caveats to otherwise straightforward findings.     

Individual Differences in Children (Book)

This study involved a comparison of the factor structure of the MCMI in: a general psychiatric sample, a substance misuse sample, and a drug misuse sample. Examination of the factor matrices for the three clinical samples provided evidence for a sturdy factor measuring a negativistic-avoidant personality style with associated anxiety, depression, and somatization. Evidence was also available in all three samples for factors measuring: a) a paranoid cognitive and interpersonal pattern, and b) an asocial-avoidant personal orientation.     

Individual Differences in Metacognitive Responsiveness: Cognitive and Personality Correlates

Individuals differ not only in the ability to make decisions, but also in the degree to which they respond adaptively to uncertainty about those decisions. We examined how optimally 124 participants used an uncertain response on near-threshold trials of a psychophysical task. All participants showed overconfidence, but women tended to be more adaptive than men in responsiveness to uncertainty. Participants who responded to uncertainty most optimally exhibited more cognitive failures, fewer attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder symptoms, greater need for closure, better attention scanning skills, but larger effects of Stroop-task incongruity compared with participants who were least optimal in responsiveness to uncertainty. These data suggest that response competition might provide a mechanism for the cognitive experience of uncertainty.     

Cognitive versus Non‐Cognitive Individual Differences and the Dynamics of Career Success

We examine the effects of cognitive and non‐cognitive individual differences on the dynamics of career success (i.e. pay, occupational status) by comparing temporal changes in the validities of two measures of personality—Core Self Evaluations and the Big Five personality dimensions—to temporal changes in the validities of two standard intelligence tests. The main finding of two studies based on large representative samples is that the validity of intelligence clearly increases over time, whereas the validity of personality tends to be stable, indicating that intelligence, but not personality, drives career success.     

A Factor-Analytic Model for Assessing Individual Differences in Response Scale Usage

This article proposes a factor-analytic model, intended for graded-response or continuous-response personality and attitude items, which includes an additional multiplicative person parameter that models the individual's response mapping process. The model, which is a modification of Spearman's (1904) factor analysis (FA) model, is parameterized as both an FA model and an item response theory (IRT) model and is fully developed to the extent that it can be used in applications. Procedures for (a) calibrating the items and assessing data fit, (b) obtaining individual estimates of both person parameters, (c) determining measurement precision, and (d) assessing differential predictability are proposed and discussed. The potential advantages of the proposal, its practical relevance, and its relations with other approaches are also discussed. Its functioning is assessed with a simulation study and 3 empirical examples in the personality domain.     

冲动-思考型儿童在拼图游戏中的问题解决及元认知差异

以小学六年级思考型和冲动型儿童各32名为被试,通过考查儿童在完成不同难度拼图任务时的表现,探讨不同认知风格儿童在问题解决中认知活动和元认知活动的差异。结果发现:(1)在线与离线元认知监控均表现出认知风格与任务难度的交互作用。在简单和中等任务中,思考型的儿童运用更多的在线元认知监控,进行计划和检查的时间更长。离线元认知监控的差异只表现在简单任务中,思考型比冲动型儿童花费更多的时间进行预测和评价;(2)在问题解决结果上,认知风格不同的儿童完成任务的时间没有显著差异;(3)在问题解决过程中,冲动型儿童解决问题的操作步数多于思考型儿童;冲动型儿童更多地使用主体参照策略,而思考型儿童更多使用线索推断策略。     

认知风格、认知操作对智力水平个体差异的影响机制

该研究以探查不同智力水平群体的认知风格是否不同以及认知风格对智力个体差异的影响机制为目的,在256名14～15岁被试的韦氏智力测验和认知风格测量基础上,通过比较不同智商水平组的认知风格、观察认知风格与智商分数之间的相关、比较控制与未控制认知风格下认知操作与智商分数相关变化;结果发现不同智商群体各自的主导性认知风格迥异,控制认知风格下认知操作与智力水平之间相关显著降低;这说明认知风格以潜在、稳定的组织方式影响着认知操作,继而影响智力水平,认知操作相比于认知风格对智力个体差异的影响更为强大、直接。     

Individual Learning Styles and Creativity

Business schools are in need of developing creative graduates. This article explores how creativity among business students can be stimulated. Because a considerable amount of knowledge is required for creative ideas to emerge, the learning process has a significant impact on creativity. This, in turn, indicates that learning style is important for creative performance. In addition to exploring the relationship between learning styles and creativity, the research reported here tested self-efficacy and enjoyment as mediators. One hundred and fifty students participated in this study. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that independent and collaborative learning styles were associated with higher creativity. Although the independent learning style-creativity relationship was mediated by self-efficacy, the collaborative learning style-creativity relationship was partially mediated by enjoyment of the learning process. Implications for business education are discussed.     

Individual Differences in Cognitive Emotion Regulation: Implications for Subjective and Psychological Well-Being

Although research has extensively examined the link between cognitive emotion regulation and psychopathological symptoms, scant attention has been given to the relationship between dispositional use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies and individuals’ positive functioning. In a cross-sectional study on 470 adults, we examined whether individual differences in the use of nine cognitive strategies were associated with subjective and psychological well-being. Results show that positive reappraisal and refocus on planning are positively related to both subjective and psychological well-being. Rumination, catastrophizing and self-blame are linked to poorer well-being, while positive refocusing, putting into perspective, and acceptance show few significant associations. These results suggest that cognitive emotion regulation strategies may be differently effective in promoting individual’s well-being.     

Individual Differences in Decision Making Depend on Cognitive Abilities,Monitoring and Control

Decision making is the process by which actions are constructed and initiated. Across many research streams, this can be explained in terms of three broad cognitive processes: cognitive abilities that construct judgements and potential courses of action, and interacting monitoring and control processes that determine when to initiate them as behaviour. The aim of this research was to investigate the generality of individual differences in these processes, and their power to predict patterns of decision behaviour identified in our previous research. Undergraduate participants (N = 364) completed nine tests assessing cognitive abilities, monitoring confidence, control thresholds and various patterns of decision behaviour. The tests differed in their cognitive ability requirements and the nature of the payoffs associated with decisions. Cognitive abilities were a strong predictor of individuals' decision competence and optimality, while monitoring confidence and control thresholds were strong and unique predictors of their overall decisiveness, and reckless and hesitant errors. These results were strongest when the measures of cognitive abilities and monitoring confidence were derived from tests with the same cognitive requirements as the tests used to derive the decision behaviours and when the control threshold measure was derived from tests with the same decision payoffs as the test used to derive the decision behaviours. This effect was particularly pronounced for control thresholds, highlighting the domain‐specific nature of cognitive control processes. These findings demonstrate how cognitive abilities, monitoring output and control thresholds interact with cognitive requirements and context‐specific payoffs to drive individual differences in decision‐making behaviour. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cognitive Abilities Involved in Insight Problem Solving: An Individual Differences Model

This study investigated individual differences in cognitive abilities that contribute to solving insight problems. A model is proposed describing three types of cognitive ability that contribute independently to insight: convergent thinking, divergent thinking, and breaking frame. The model was tested in a large sample (N = 108) by regressing insight problem solving performance on measures of these three abilities. This analysis demonstrated that all three abilities predicted insight independently. Convergent thinking was further broken down into verbal intelligence and working memory, which also predicted insight independently of each other and of divergent thinking and breaking frame. Finally, when pitted against noninsight problem solving as a predictor in regression, only insight problem solving was uniquely associated with divergent thinking and breaking frame. The model is suggested as a potentially useful taxonomy for the study of ill-defined problems and cognitive abilities.     

小学儿童认知发展的个体差异研究

使用皮亚杰经典任务探查了小学一、三、五年级儿童的认知发展以及发展的个体间差异和个体内差异。结果表明随着年级的升高,儿童的具体运算思维能力从一年级到三年级发展迅速,到五年级时达到比较稳定的水平;同时,形式运算思维能力在一年级已经萌芽并逐步发展。不管在具体运算任务还是形式运算任务,各年级儿童都表现出显着的个体间差异和个体内差异。这些发现对教育和临床心理都有重要的意义。     

Thinking Styles and Cognitive Development

Using R. J. Sternberg's (1988, 1997) theory of thinking styles and W. G. Perry's (1970) theory of cognitive development, the author investigated the nature of thinking styles as they relate to cognitive development. Eighty-two Hong Kong university students (44 male, 38 female) responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory (R. J. Sternberg & R. K. Wagner, 1992) and the Zhang Cognitive Development Inventory (L. F. Zhang, 1997). Statistical analyses provided varying degrees of support for the prediction of an overlap between the thinking style and cognitive development constructs. In general, students who reasoned at a higher cognitive developmental level tended to use a wider range of thinking styles than students who reasoned at a lower cognitive developmental level. Implications of results are discussed in relation to education and research.     

认知操作、认知方式与外倾性人格特质的关系

对28名外倾被试和28名内倾被试进行实验性认知测试,以考察认知操作、认知方式与外倾性人格特质的关系。结果表明,内外倾被试在含有社会认知操作、非社会认知操作的认知任务的测试总分上没有差异,而在社会认知一非社会认知方式的评价分数上存在显著差异。外倾被试更多地倾向于社会认知型认知方式,内倾被试更多地倾向于非社会认知型认知方式。研究结果支持了外倾性与智力关系的假设：外倾性与社会认知一非社会认知的认知方式存在相关关系,而与认知操作测试总分无关。