A new measure of Verbal–Imagery Cognitive Style: VICS

Concern has been raised about the reliability of Riding’s (1991) verbal–imagery dimension of the popular Cognitive Style Analysis (CSA) test (Peterson, Deary, & Austin, 2003a, 2003b; Rezaei & Katz, 2004). This led Peterson (2003) to develop a new test of Verbal–Imagery Cognitive Style (the VICS test). We report the development of the VICS test and the findings from two studies which compare the reliability of the VICS with the CSA’s verbal–imagery dimension. In the first study, 50 participants completed the VICS and the verbal–imagery dimension of the CSA test twice, about a week apart. The verbal–imagery style ratios, which are used in both tests to assess a person’s verbal–imagery cognitive style, showed high internal consistency (r > 0.72) and acceptable stability at re-test (r = 0.56.) on the new VICS test, but there was poor internal consistency (r < 0.03) and low test re-test reliability (r < 0.31) on the CSA and an extended version of the CSA. The second study confirmed these results in an independent sample of 100 participants. It is concluded that the new VICS test is a reliable measure of verbal–imagery cognitive style.