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cognitive style gap larger than 20 points has more stress than students with a cognitive

style gap less than 20 points in student populations with lower levels of intelligence.

 The second explanation to why students with a cognitive style gap larger than 20

points did not have higher levels of stress may be that they did not work enough with the

faculty member to recognize a need to operate outside of their preferred cognitive style.

Again, coping behavior can only occur for a limited intensity and duration before the

situation is too psychologically stressful (Kirton). A three credit hour class presented over

a time span of one semester simply may not allow the intensity or duration for students to

have higher levels of stress. Second, faculty members may be interacting with students,

but not participating with students in the problem solving assignments. Said differently,

faculty members assign problem sets, but do not provide feedback through the problem

solving process used to complete the assignments. If students are working by themselves

in completing problem solving assignments, cognitive style gap with the faculty member

may be irrelevant. If students are working in groups or teams, it would be more

appropriate to assess the cognitive style gap between students in the team, not the faculty

member. More research is needed to determine if students with a cognitive style gap

larger than 20 points contributes to student stress in different academic atmospheres in

which students and faculty members work together in solving problems and in shorter

time periods. Examples of these situations include smaller class sizes, independent

studies, service learning projects, undergraduate research programs and three hour

courses offered in interim semesters.

 A two-tailed independent sample t-test was conducted to examine motivation

score differences between students with more than a 20-point gap and students with less