Cognitive styles in Industrial design

Abstract

The article presents the results of a research Project aimed at making a characterization of Cognitive Styles (CS) in the dimension of field sensibility-independence, of a sample of 126 Industrial Design students of the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University (JTLU) in Colombia, 90,47% of them come from the central Andean region. The guiding approach of our project is the Theory of Psychological Differentiation in the version of the Sawa, Gottschadt, Embedded Figures (SG-EFT) [20]. The results of the SG-EFT tests are crossed to some variables of individual, eco-cultural and social study identifying the conditions of cognitive styles that favor processes of innovation. These indicate a trend toward students with a field independent style. The results support some correspondence to those of Hederich et al. and other researchers in the field independence trend. It is expected that this project contributes pedagogy and didactics within the university context, add guidance to future generations in the development of design abilities and play a role in the processes of innovation.