Cognitive styles and reading performance

Conclusion The cognitive style-reading connection appears to represent a case of promises not yet fulfilled. Further, it is dubious whether fulfillment is just around the corner. Certainly, one can question the one-cognitive-style-at-a-time approach that has been dominant thus far. The time may have come to think about cognitive styles along with other cognitive measures in combination. Multiple-regression and other multivariate techniques are clearly called for. Without any doubt, the Cronbach-Snow (1977) ATI approach deserves further consideration, not only in the sense of matching styles with instructional treatments in reading — what is called the capitalization approach — but also in the sense of devising methods that can serve a prosthetic function to overcome styles that are maladaptive for reading — a compensatory approach, in other words. The foregoing theme as well as others scattered through the paper could potentially be developed into systematic research proposals aiming to bridge the domains of cognitive style and reading performance. Loose ends abound in the present area, and much progress is possible if energy and imagination are applied to the task. It is my hope that this state-of-the-art article offers a modest step in that direction. This paper was presented as part of the Symposium on Cognitive Processes and Strategies in Reading at the 30th Annual Conference of the Orton Society, Indianapolis, November 1979.