A

COGNITIVE STYLES

Think of the mind as a house with seven rooms. Every normal person
has the same mental house with the same seven rooms. Each room
corresponds to one type of thinking style: There is a Perceiver room, a
Mercy room, a Facilitator room, and so on.
I suggest that the cognitive style of a person describes the room in
which he „lives.‟ This is the mode of thought which is conscious in that
person. By conscious, I mean that it is possible to see what exists in that
„room,‟ and to control what happens. All seven modes of thought are
present in each person, but only one is conscious. The other six modes are
subconscious, or below the surface.
It appears that cognitive style is determined genetically. In terms of the
illustration, I am born „living‟ in a specific room and it is not possible for
me to move to a different room. I suggest that I can only see and control
what happens in my mental room. In contrast, the other parts of my mind
are subconscious and operate automatically, outside of conscious control
or awareness.

We can illustrate the idea of consciousness by stretching the picture of
the house a little further. When I live in a room, I can do what I like to it: I
can paint the walls blue; I can rearrange the furniture; I can furnish it with
bric-a-brac. Or, I can fill the room with garbage, tear down the wallpaper,
and ruin the furniture. The choice is mine. Similarly, I can do whatever I
like to the mental room in which I am conscious. I can fill it with
information, or stop anything from entering. I can decorate it with tasteful
thought, or use it as a garbage dump for worthless ideas. The choice is
mine.

Y o u r M i n d

Teacher Perceiver

Server Mercy

Exhorter Facilitator

This person has the Cognitive Style of Server.

Contributor

He is conscious in Server Mode.