Tyrimo tikslas - palyginti vadovų racionalaus/intuityvaus kognityvinių stilių sąsajas su reprezentatyvumo ir pasiekiamumo euristikų panaudojimo dažnumu priimant sprendimus tyrime pateiktose užduotyse. Tyrime dalyvavo 152 Kauno mieste ar rajone dirbantys gyventojai (moterys ir vyrai), kurie buvo suskirstyti į dvi grupes: 1) vadovaujamas pareigas užimantys darbuotojai (N=85), vadovaujantys skirtingam darbuotojų skaičiui, iš kurių buvo 49 (57.6 proc.) moterys ir 36 (42.4 proc.) vyrai; 2) nevadovaujamas pareigas užimantys darbuotojai (N= 67), iš kurių buvo 38 (56.7 proc.) moterys ir 29 (43.3 proc.) vyrai. Tiriamieji turėjo užpildyti anonimines anketas, kuriose buvo panaudotos 2 skalės matuojančios racionalų/intuityvų kognityvinį stilių ir 3 užduotys, kuriose pasireiškia reprezentatyvumo ir pasiekiamumo euristikų panaudojimas. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad reprezentatyvumo euristiką panaudoja dažniau vadovai turintys dominuojantį intuityvų kognityvinį stilių, bei didesnį darbo stažą turintys vadovai pasižymintys dominuojančiu racionaliu kognityviniu stiliumi. Tačiau tyrime reikšmingų skirtumų nebuvo rasta tarp lyties, amžiaus, kognityvinio stiliaus ir reprezentatyvumo euristikos panaudojimo dažnio. / The aim of the research is to compare the correlation between rational/intuitive cognitive styles and usage rate of representativeness and availability heuristics in managers' decision making according to the presented tasks. 152 people (men and women) working in Kaunas city or district have participated in the research. The participants were divided into two groups: 1) people working in management positions (N=85) supervising a different number of employees, this group consists of 49 (57.6 %) women and 36 (42.4 %) men; 2) people working in non-management positions (N= 67), 38 (56.7 %) women and 29 (43.3 %) men among them. Respondents had to fill in anonymous questionnaires which included two scales measuring rational/intuitive cognitive style and thee tasks revealing the usage of representativeness and availability heuristics. The results of the research show that representativeness heuristics is used more often by managers with dominating intuitive cognitive style and managers with higher work experience with dominating rational cognitive style. The research however did not reveal any significant distinctions in sex, age, cognitive style and usage rate of representativeness heuristic.

Mobile handset technology has improved greatly in recent decades. Improvements in hardware and software conduce the importance of the handset as a computer. Whilst the mobile phone industry and researchers emphasise understanding users from sociological aspects, such as services, usage habits, functionalities and so forth; this research aims to seek the variables that impact upon users’ interactions with the phone from the root-individual differences. For the purpose of placing mobile phone users at the core of the interface design process, the individual differences of gender, cognitive style and user experience were applied as the main variables in this research. Accordingly, to examine individuals’ differences and their operational behaviour with phone interfaces, the effects of cognitive style and user experience present stronger impact on the user performance than gender. The two factors were then investigated with regard to individuals’ operational behaviour with phone interfaces. This research then developed categories to link the theoretical attributes of cognitive style and phone users’ practical operational behaviour. Furthermore, the impact of cognitive style on the users’ operational behaviour was also connected to individuals’ problem solving ability. Meanwhile, the effect of user experience was investigated with a novel methodology-Taxonomy of Experience. The results revealed necessary elements that the users cared about the most, and these differed from the interface design guidelines of phone industry. This PhD thesis presents the application of the triangulation method to explore the variables that impact upon individuals’ interaction with mobile phone interfaces, specially concerned with mobile phone interface design from a psychological perspective, and provides a deeper understanding of users for future design events. More importantly, this research delivered the concept of understanding users before conducting design.

There has been an increasing focus on web-based instruction (WBI) systems which accommodate individual differences in educational environments. Many of those studies have focused on the investigation of learners’ behaviour to understand their preferences, performance and perception using hypermedia systems. In this thesis, existing studies focus extensively on performance measurement attributes such as time spent using the system by a user, gained score and number of pages visited in the system. However, there is a dearth of studies which explore the relationship between such attributes in measuring performance level. Statistical analysis and data mining techniques were used in this study. We built a WBI program based on existing designs which accommodated learner’s preferences. We evaluated the proposed system by comparing its results with related studies. Then, we investigated the impact of related individual differences on learners’ preferences, performance and perception after interacting with our WBI program. We found that some individual differences and their combination had an impact on learners' preferences when choosing navigation tools. Consequently, it was clear that the related individual differences altered a learner’s preferences. Thus, we did further investigation to understand how multiple individual differences (Multi-ID) could affect learners’ preferences, performance and perception. We found that the Multi-ID clearly altered the learner’s preferences and performance. Thus, designers of WBI applications need to consider the combination of individual differences rather than these differences individually. Our findings also showed that attributes relationships had an impact on measuring learners’ performance level on learners with Multi-ID. The key contribution of this study lies in the following three aspects: firstly, investigating the impact of our proposed system, using three system features in the design, on a learner’s behavior, secondly, exploring the influence of Multi-ID on a learner’s preferences, performance and perception, thirdly, combining the three measurement attributes to understand the performance level using these measuring attributes.

The present research examined if mindfulness reduced negativity bias on measures of attitude formation and cognitive style, as a potential explanation for the beneficial effects of mindfulness on emotional disturbance. Two studies were conducted. Study One was correlational and found that trait mindfulness inversely correlated with measures of negative cognitive style, and that the latter partially mediated an inverse association between mindfulness and predisposition to depression and anxiety. Further, correlations between mindfulness and both positive attitude formation and optimism hinted at a potential positivity bias. Study Two extended these findings using a randomized experimental design comparing a mindfulness induction to an unfocused attention control condition. The mindfulness condition demonstrated a positivity bias in attitude formation and increased optimism compared to the control condition, but did not demonstrate bias in attitude generalization. Potential explanations and implications for emotional disturbance are discussed.

A presente dissertação investigou a relação entre estilo cognitivo verbal-visual, recordação e expressão narrativa de eventos autobiográficos. Cento e quatro estudantes universitários realizaram as seguintes tarefas: 1) Relato de Evento Autobiográfico; 2) Questionário de Memória Autobiográfica (QMA); 3) Questionário Verbalizador-visualizador (QVV); e 4) versão reduzida do Bett´s Questionnarie Upon Mental Imagery. A análise fatorial do Estudo I distinguiu dois níveis da recordação de eventos pessoais: 1) processos cognitivos pouco dependentes de recursos reflexivos e concomitantes ao ato de recordar, como a vivacidade de imagens; e 2) processos reflexivos, nos quais se destacam as avaliações e juízos acerca da importância do evento. O Estudo II indicou a inconsistência empírica do fator visual do QVV e a adequação psicométrica do fator que avalia preferências cognitivas verbais. O Estudo III não confirmou a expectativa de correlação entre preferências cognitivas (por palavras ou por imagens) e memória autobiográfica (tanto na recordação quanto no relato de eventos pessoais). No entanto, o teste t revelou diferenças significativas (p>0,01) entre dois grupos (Psicologia e Letras versus Odontologia e Biomedicina) quanto às variáveis: escore em estilo verbal, número de palavras e coerência narrativa. O grupo Psicologia e Letras apresentou os maiores escores nas três variáveis. Os resultados sugeriram a existência de um construto que abarca tanto estilo cognitivo verbal quanto características narrativas: perfil cognitivo verbalnarrativo. A análise quantitativa/qualitativa do Estudo IV apontou a proporção equilibrada entre descritores objetivos e subjetivos como condição para a obtenção de alta coerência narrativa. Além disso, verificou-se que características verbais e narrativas estavam alicerçadas em habilidades imaginativas. Este achado contradiz a freqüente concepção de que preferências verbais e imaginativas seriam polaridades excludentes, indicando interação entre estes dois processos cognitivos. / This research investigated the relationship among verbalizer-visualizer cognitive style, recall, and narrative expression of autobiographical events. One hundred and four undergraduate students were asked to complete four tasks: 1) Report of an Autobiographical Event; 2) Autobiographical Memory Questionnaire (AMQ); 3) Verbalizer-visualizer Questionnaire (VVQ); 4) Bett´s Questionnarie Upon Mental Imagery – Short Version. Factorial Analisys of Study I distinguished two factors in recalling of personal events: 1) pre-reflexive cognitive processes (poorly dependent on reflexive resources, such as imagery vivacity); 2) reflexive cognitive processes (such as evaluations concerning the event significance). Outcomes of Study II highlighted an empirical inconsistency of the visual factor of VVQ and appropriate psychometric properties of its verbal scores. In Study III the expected correlation between cognitive preferences (for words or images) and autobiographical memory (for recall and report of personal events) was not confirmed. However, a t test analysis indicated significant difference (p>0,01) between two groups (Psychology and Languages versus Odontology and Biomedicine) concerning the following variables: verbal scores, narrative coherence and narrative volume. Psychology and Languages students presented higher scores in such variables. A new construct is suggested in order to explain both verbal cognitive style and narrative characteristics: the verbal-narrative cognitive profile. Qualitative/quantitative analysis in Study IV indicated that a similar balance between objective and subjective narrative descriptors is needed to achieve high levels of narrative coherence. Moreover, it was observed that verbal and narrative characteristics depend upon imaginative skills. Thus, outcomes contradict the ordinary assumption that verbal and imaginative preferences should be taken as excluding polarities: an interaction between these two cognitive processes was found.

Gender differences in psychopathology have long been of interest in the fields of clinical, developmental, and personality psychology. Lewis proposed two models to explain the emergence of the development of gender differences in depression and paranoia. Lewis stated that gender differences in depression and paranoia can be traced to corresponding gender differences in cognitive style, guilt-proneness, shame-proneness, and the use of specific defense mechanisms. Although research evidence has validated certain components of these two models, neither model has ever been tested in its entirety. This research project intended to test Lewis's models in their entirety by utilizing structural equation modeling.

The original aim of the study was to trial an assessment procedure, HOWZAT, designed to sample the oral language, reading, and cognitive style competencies of seven year old children. The evaluation of the pilot study indicated that the procedure was limited in the extent to which the original aims could be attained. A follow up study with amended aims, items, and procedure was conducted and evaluated. The second study was a descriptive, empirical study of the responses of a sample of seven year old children to eighteen items - most of which contained distortions of written language forms. The procedure required the children to make decisions about the acceptability of the items and to discuss and justify their decisions. The sample consisted of thirty children, ten from each of three reading ability groups. The allocation of children to groups and ranking within each of the groups according to reading ability was done by their respective teachers. The children's responses to the items and some of their response behaviours were analysed in two major ways. In the item analysis it was found that the children had similar response patterns to the items that were distorted semantically, syntactically and in conventions of print but responded differently to the graphophonically distorted items. The patterns of response to the different kinds of distortions were interpreted in terms of the intrusive effect of the distortions on the children's expectations about written language. Different response patterns were also found between and within the three ability groups. Children perceived by their teachers as being better readers demonstrated competence in finding and using strategies for dealing with the task and items. Individual profiles were presented to illustrate these differences. The conclusion reached in the evaluation was that the use of distorted materials had produced interesting results but was not justified on ideological grounds. However, the procedure was judged to have some potential as an action research methodology to explore children's reasoning with print and strategy learning abilities, and to probe their linguistic development and performance.

Strategy is an important part of any business. To become successful, a company must put a lot of effort into creating a strong and feasible strategy. To eliminate problems to follow the strategy it should be clear and jointly formulated. However, a problem could still be that the strategy is perceived and understood differently by managers and em-ployees within the company. This could implicate issues because these persons are ex-pected to follow the strategy and adopt their plans according to it. In this study we in-vestigate how the perceptions of a strategy differ among employees within an organisa-tion. This study is made with Yoigo, which is a Spanish telecommunication company that recently finished the creation of a new strategy.In this research, a qualitative method was used to collect primary data. Highly standard-ized and open interviews were conducted in Madrid at the Yoigo headquarter. In addi-tion, observations were used as primary data in order to better answer our research ques-tions and to fulfil our purpose.Our results indicate that there are significant differences and similarities in employees’ perception of the strategy. This study also concludes that a company’s internal envi-ronment could affect employees’ strategy awareness. We tested the perception of strat-egy through four different perspectives. The first three are customers, competitors and corporation; these perspectives are pointed out as key factors to a successful strategy (Ohmae, 1982). The fourth perspective was to investigate how perceptions differed in terms of the strategy formation process. Our major findings are that employees’ percep-tions regarding competitors and the strategy process are highly coherent while the op-posite is found about customers and corporation.

Syftet med min studie har varit att belysa två olika lärstilsmodeller Dunn & Dunns Learning Style Inventory (LSI) och Vermunts Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) för att urskilja deras olikheter. Detta arbete är en forskningskonsumerande uppsats som är baserad på tidigare forskning inom ämnet lärstilar. Vetenskapliga artiklar, översiktsgranskningar, rapporter och böcker har bearbetats och analyserats och kategorier har utformats för att jämföra och analysera lärstilsmodellerna i relation till varandra. I resultatet presenteras båda lärstilsmodellernas karaktäriserande drag vilka är lärstilsförfattarnas definition av termen ”lärstil” samt den specifika lärstilens uppkomst. Sedan behandlas centrala begrepp och kategorier som används inom lärstilen samt lärstilens pedagogiska innebörd. Därefter presenteras mätinstrumentets namn samt själva utformningen av mätinstrumentsformuläret. Efter detta berörs den empiriska evidens som framförts av lärstilsförfattarna samt “extern” evidens av lärstilen om så existerar. Avslutningsvis redogörs de synpunkter som framförts på lärstilen. Studien visar att Dunn & Dunns Learning Style Inventory (LSI) och Vermunts Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) skiljer sig avsevärt åt. Författaren av denna uppsats förespråkar Vermunts Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS) och läsaren rekommenderas att först efter noga välinformerat övervägande välja den lärstilsmodell som visar på stark evidens och som överensstämmer med pedagogens egen syn på inlärning.

Always, researchers are trying to use different ways to describe the concept ¡§Motivation¡¨. Different definition of motivation will develop different theory. However, there are two points under below at least: First is the fitness of the culture, the concept of the Western would have the specific background, will not fit in the individual person with other culture. Second, to ease the verifying of the science, most of the researches only discuss the relationship of immediate variables but neglect the influence of individual personality in different points of time. This study will combine the concepts of motivation and creativity through integrating work motivation theories and following up Teresa M. Amabile¡¦s research to build up the ¡§Personal Creative Process Model¡¨. The research model includes: the environment of organization, the process of perception, motivation, behavior and outcome. Especially, process of perception includes personality, criterion and response. ¡§Criterion¡¨ refers to personal need and value which are influenced by social environment and culture in country. Addition, ¡§Response¡¨ refers to attitude and emotion which are influenced by time. In this study, I use the concepts, ¡§Criterion¡¨ and ¡§Response¡¨, to compensate the loss of old motivation theories. Supposing the variable, ¡§Criterion¡¨, is determined, this study¡¦s purpose will find out the relationship of other variables and how these variables influence creativity. Next, using questionnaire to capture responses of college student and work adult will help us to understand the relationship of these responses. The questionnaire, this study uses, includes: ¡§Cognitive Style Instrument¡¨, ¡§What Is Happening in This Class? Questionnaire¡¨, ¡§KEYS¡¨ and ¡§The Work Preference Inventory¡¨. In addition, this study uses the grade of students to represent personal creativity and analyze the relationship between creativity and other constructs. The conclusion shows cognitive style indeed affects creativity, but the relations are different from theory. Furthermore, cognitive style and response/motivation are almost independent. To infer, the response and motivation are intervening variables between personality and creativity. Finally, regression analysis by students, this study got the result: ¡§Close by the factor is the key element of the creativity performance¡¨.