cognitive style

Cognitive style refers to the consistent ways individuals receive and respond to information. These styles are stable across time and situations and are considered expressions of personality. Psychologists have observed that some people make fine distinctions between stimuli, while others blur them, and some group objects into broad categories, while others prefer narrow ones.1

These consistencies are known as cognitive controls, and combinations of them form a person's cognitive style. Cognitive controls help limit the influence of environment and motivation on behavior. For example, some individuals tend to blur successive stimuli (leveling), while others highlight differences (sharpening). Another studied control is field dependence-independence, which describes how much people rely on internal versus environmental cues for orientation and differentiation. Field-independent individuals tend to favor careers involving abstract issues, while field-dependent individuals often prefer working with people.1