Critical Thinking and Preferred Cognitive Style of Nursing Students

Abstract

The problem. This study was to determine the difference in critical thinking ability between student nurses with differing preferred cognitive styles. Procedure. Nursing students and psychology students from intact sampling groups participated in an exploratory descriptive study. Both groups were tested on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal and the Human Information Processing Survey. Findings. There was a difference between nursing students, and non-nursing students' critical thinking scores (t = 2.0513,p = .0429). A negative correlation was found between the interpretation subtest scores and the preferred cognitive style scores (coef = -0.3790, p = .0079). A positive correlation was found between the assumption subtest scores and the scores of those with no preferred cognitive style among the non-nursing students (coef = 0.6466, p =.0231). Conclusions. The results suggest a significant difference between the critical thinking ability of nursing students and non-nursing students. Two subtests on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal were affected differently by the preferred cognitive style scores than the other three subtests. Recommendations. Further research, including replication with a different sample and methodological investigation of critical thinking tools, is suggested.