Styles of Thinking, Abilities, and Academic Performance

This study was designed to investigate the role of thinking styles in academic performance. Participants were 199 gifted students enrolled in the Yale Summer School Program. Their abilities were evaluated by the Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test; their academic performance was judged by independent raters blind to the conditions of the study; and their thinking styles were measured by two converging self-report questionnaires. The results of the study show that, after controlling for levels of abilities, styles of thinking significantly contribute to prediction of academic performance. Moreover, equally able thinkers of different styles tend to do better in different assessment settings.