EEG differences and cognitive style

Individuals differences in information processing related to cognitive style were investigated by EEG recording during cognitive tasks. Fifteen adults received the Cognitive Styles Analysis which assessed their positions on two dimensions: the wholist-analytic and the verbal-imagery. The EEG from midline, paramedial and lateral electrode clusters was recorded, while subjects viewed words presented at different rates. A button was pressed when a word was in a target conceptual category. Off-line analysis produced spectral powers for delta, theta, alpha, beta 1, beta 2 and gamma bands. For the midline, the wholists had higher output than analytics in theta and alpha, but lower in gamma. In the paramedial cluster, verbalisers had greater right power than imagers for all bands except alpha. Further, the overall power was greater on the right for imagers than verbalisers frontally, and the converse occipitally. In the lateral grouping, the wholist-verbalisers had greater overall power left antero-temporally than other sub-groups. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.