Are intelligence and personality related to verbal-imagery and wholistic-analytic cognitive styles?

A frequent criticism of cognitive style tests is that often they are not distinguished from mental abilities and personality traits. In a sample of 100 subjects, this study investigated the relationship of two performance-based cognitive style tests (Verbal-Imagery Cognitive Style [VICS] test and Extended Cognitive Style Analysis Wholistic-Analytic test [Extended CSA-WA]) with eight tests of mental ability (chosen from the validated kit of factor Referenced Tests for their relevance to the styles being tested) and three established personality tests (EPQ-R, IPIP, and IVE). The cognitive style tests were administered twice, more than a week apart. No mental ability test score or personality trait score correlated more than .33 with the cognitive style differences and none of the correlations were consistent across the two occasions of cognitive styles measurement. These results suggest that individual differences on the VICS and the Extended-CSA-WA cognitive style tests are independent from ability and personality. Most style tests have not empirically demonstrated this dissociation. These results provide further evidence that the VICS and the extended CSA-WA can further enhance our understanding of individual differences. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.