Cognitive Style of Humanities, Commerce and Science Students – A Study on Higher Secondary Students from West Bengal

Cognitive style or thinking style is a term used in cognitive psychology to describe the way individuals think, perceive and remember information. The present study aims to understand the cognitive style adapted by higher secondary students. The study sample consists of 90 higher secondary school students (30 each from science, humanities and commerce background). The male female ratio was 50:50. The age range was from 16-18 years. They were all from middle socio-economic status. They were administered an adapted version of cognitive style questionnaire by Ancona, Kochan, Scully, Van maanen and Westney. The results indicate for the dimension of Sensing there was significant effect of stream of study and gender. For the Intuition dimension again there was a significant effect of stream and gender. For Perceiving dimension also there was a significant effect of stream and gender. Sensing was highest for the science stream and lowest for the Humanities. Again Intuition was highest for the Humanities stream and lowest for the Science stream. The males have always scored highest in the dimension of Perceiving than their female counterparts both in Humanities and Science stream. And the female irrespective of the stream of study has scored higher in the Intuitive dimension. The present study is helpful in the field of designing educational guidance and curriculum for the Higher Secondary Students.