Abstract

BECERRA-BULLA, Fabiola; SANCHEZ-ANGARITA, Jacinto  and  VARGAS-ZARATE, Melier. Predominant cognitive style in occupational therapy students at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2009. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2012, vol.60, n.1, pp.31-39. ISSN 0120-0011.

Background. Cognitive styles have been studied since the first half of the 20th century. Most research in Colombia has been carried out on elementary and secondary education students. Objective. Determining Universidad Nacional de Colombia occupational therapy students' predominant cognitive learning styles for identifying their correspondence with explicit cognitive abilities in the curriculum. Material and methods. The masked figure test was used for determining cognitive style and a sociocultural survey and self-reporting questionnaires were also used for identifying learning and studying preferences. Results. Most of the population being studied was female. Around 50% of the students were in the first semester, 18.9% in the fifth semester and the rest in the seventh semester. Average masked figure test scores were 36.9 for first semester students, 33.06 fifth semester and 36.51 seventh semester; no significant differences were found. An important percentage of the students was characterised by being very sensitive to their learning setting and having an intermediate cognitive style. Most field-dependent students who were very sensitive to their setting habitually studied in their bedrooms, underlined texts and used internet for studying. Another group used internet, but did not use schemes or underline texts. Conclusions. An intermediate cognitive style predominated in this study (i.e. having features regarding both polarities); less students were found who were totally dependent or filed-independent.

Keywords : cognitive style; earning; university student (MeSH).

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