TITLE Electrophysiological Determinants of Cognitive Style: Implications for Educational and Psychological

A study demonstrated how recordings of ongoing electroencephalographic (EEG) activity can be used to study global aspects of complex cognitive processes that take place during the reading and encoding of connected discourse. The methods utilized. allowed the study of complex cognitive processes within an ecologically valid paradigm (natural reading) and demonstrated that EEG activity in the alpha bandwidth is a reliable correlate of modal processing style, not just a measure of mental alertness. Right handed male and female college students read two poetry selections and were told that they would be expected to recall as much of the poem as possible (in any order they wished) immediately after reading the last stanza. Electrophysiological recordings were made during the reading of each stanza from two parietal temporal sites that allovsd for observations of differential hemisphere activation. Results support the notion that various "cognitive styles " differtiall