My main research interests are concerned with cognitive style. Cognitive styles are a person’s preferred way of processing information.

Most of my current research is focused on individual differences in verbal-imagery and wholistic-analytic styles. That is, whether people prefer to represent information in words or pictures and whether they prefer to structure information in a global or wholistic way, or whether they are analytic and prefer the detail.

My research has shown that the existing test of these two dimensions was not reliable (Peterson et al., 2003a; 2003b) and this led me to design and test a new Verbal-Imagery Cognitive Style test (VICS) and improve an existing test of the wholistic-analytic dimension (by Extending the CSA-WA). I have found these tests to be reliable and independent of personality, ability and other popular style measures. My current research interest is in the applied applications of these new tests, particularly the role that they could play in business, e-learning and in education.

If you have any questions about my research, the tests that I have used, or you have similar research interests, please get in touch.

Cognitive Style tests I have used

To date my research has involved using the following tests:

Cognitive Styles Analysis Test (CSA). Riding, 1991.

Productivity Environment Preference Survey (PEPS), Dunn, Dunn & Price 1996.

Approaches to and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST). Entwistle, Tait & McCune, 2000.

Verbal Imagery Cognitive Styles test (VICS). Peterson, Deary & Austin, submitted.

Extended Cognitive Style Analysis Wholistic-Analytic test (Extended-CSA-WA). Peterson, Deary & Austin, 2003

Instructional Preference Inventory. Sadler-Smith & Riding, 1999.