THINKING STYLES: AN OVERVIEW

Thinking styles refers to the preference a person displays during cognitive processing, or as Sternberg puts it, “The process used to solve a problem or to devise an answer.” A style of thinking is therefore, a preferred way of thinking. It is not ability but rather a preferred way of expressing one or more abilities. How do people think about things?" Harrison and Bramson, through their research detailed in their text the Art of Thinking, found that in Western society there are five distinct styles of thinking. Sternberg approached the problem of accounting for individual differences in handling various tasks in different way from the underlying the other styles. Sternberg derives his styles top down not from performance on a test. For this, he uses a complex metaphor of mental self-government.