Cognitive Style and Architectural Education
Andrew Roberts, Cardiff
University, UK
This paper describes the initial stages of research looking at the cognitive styles of
architecture students to ascertain whether these relate to performance in architectural
design related exercises. The research also considers whether architectural education
might change students cognitive style as they develop new abilities. Whilst Riding argues
that cognitive style should remain constant, he admits that there is as yet little
evidence to support that.
The education of an architect, is a complex process which encourages students to develop
new ways of seeing, thinking and doing. Research has attempted to demonstrate that the
most successful architecture students are those that learn to approach the subject in a
holistic manner, where a number of key issues related to the design of buildings are
addressed simultaneously. This differs somewhat from the engineer, who is often seen to
approach aspects of design in a more sequential manner. (Lawson). Similarly, as
architecture is by nature, progressed through graphical means, one would expect
students to possess particular abilities to visualise, which could be related to Ridings
Imager Verbaliser dimension. Most architecture students enter higher
education with little experience of architecture as a discipline, and therefore a large
part of architectural education is concerned with the development of new cognitive
abilities.
An entire cohort of incoming architecture students used Ridings CSA to measure
cognitive style in the first week of arriving at university, and the results analysed to
see if any particular styles were more prevalent than others. (a possible factor related
to the admissions process). The cohort was then re-tested a year later. The results from
the second test were statistically significantly different from the first, indicating
either a change in cognitive style amongst the student, or a lack of test reliability.
The students cognitive styles were also tested for correlation with the end of year
mark for design work. Results showed negligible correlation on the Verbal Imager
dimension, and a weak correlation on the Wholist- Analytic dimension. Closer examination
of the results showed that a stronger correlation with the Wholist-Analytic dimension
existed for those students whose cognitive style had remained reasonable constant between
the two tests.