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Cited by 17Learning Styles and Cognitive DifferencesPersonality Traits and PsychologyCognitive Abilities and Testing

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Unkept promises of cognitive styles: A new look at old measurements

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Cuneo, Félix, Antonietti, Jean-Philippe, Mohr, Christine·2018·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0203115PMC PMC6112650
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Abstract

Cognitive style is thought to be a stable marker of one's way to approach mental operations. While of wide interest over the last decades, its operationalization remains a challenge. The literature indicates that cognitive styles assessed via i) questionnaires are predicted by personality and ii) performance tests (e.g., Group Embedded Figures Test; GEFT) are related to general intelligence. In the first study, we tested the psychometric relationship between the Cognitive Style Index questionnaire (CSI) and personality inventories (NEO Five Factor Inventory; NEO-FFI, HEXACO Personality Inventory Revised; HEXACO-PI-R). In the second study, we assessed the CSI, NEO-FFI, GEFT and a general intelligence test (Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices Test; RSMT). We found that CSI scores were largely predicted by personality and that CSI was uncorrelated with GEFT performance. Instead, better performance on the GEFT was associated with better performance on the RSMT. We conclude that i) cognitive style questionnaires overlap with personality inventories, ii) cognitive style performance tests do not measure cognitive styles and should not be used as such and iii) the cognitive style concept needs to be assessed with alternative measurement types. We discuss possible future directions.

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Metadata

Authors
Cuneo, F., Antonietti, J.-P., & Mohr, C.
Affiliations
University of Lausanne (CH)
Corresponding author
Cuneo, Félix
ORCID
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2018-08-28
Volume
13
Issue
8
Pages
e0203115
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0203115
PMC
PMC6112650
OpenAlex
W2889468535
Cited by
17
References
2
Citations by year
2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2
FWCI
1.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • IRIS (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Learning Styles and Cognitive Differences
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
Keywords
cognitive style, personality, Group Embedded Figures Test, Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, general intelligence, psychometric properties, measurement validity, NEO-FFI
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Cognition, Female, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Male, Middle Aged, Models, Psychological, Personality, Personality Inventory, Psychometrics, Surveys and Questionnaires, Thinking, Young Adult

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Unkept promises of cognitive styles: A new look at old measurements. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1371/journal.pone.0203115
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Cuneo, F., Antonietti, J.-P., & Mohr, C. (2018). Unkept promises of cognitive styles: A new look at old measurements. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0203115