Abstract
Introduction. The paper deals with a theoretical and empirical study of structural features of creative abilities among students with different cognitive styles. The study (a) reveals the importance of investigating students’ cognitive style by the reflectivity/impulsivity criterion as a predictor of their creative abilities and academic achievement, (b) emphasizes that cognitive style is a complex personal construct, a set of individual specific and stable characteristics and predispositions to certain ways of information processing and decision making, (c) assumes that students’ reflective and impulsive cognitive styles can predict their creative abilities and academic achievement.
Materials and Methods. The empirical study involved 136 male and female students (mean age 20 years). The study employed methods of data processing and analysis, the Kagan Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT), the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (Figural Forms), and the Sievert Test of Creative Abilities.
Results. The Mann-Whitney U-test and angular conversion Fisher made it possible to reveal significant differences at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels of significance among the parameters of creative abilities (originality, fluency, flexibility, and elaboration) in groups of students with reflective, impulsive, fast-accurate, and slow-inaccurate cognitive styles. Factor analysis with varimax rotation revealed structural features of students’ creative abilities.
Discussion. The characteristics of creative abilities among students with reflective, impulsive, fast-accurate, and slow-inaccurate cognitive styles create a structure. Predispositions to certain ways of information processing determine relationships within this structure. The obtained results suggest that reflective and impulsive cognitive styles and also their derivatives can predict students’ creative abilities and academic achievement. Future work will involve studying creative and style structures in students as future professionals.
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