Measurement of cognitive style reflection-impulsivity in the adulthood - results of own study

Reflection-impulsivity determines the extent to which a man solving cognitive tasks is considering the accuracy of obvious answers and the cognitive speed. An indicator of reflection is a long response time and a small number of errors, and impulsivity – short response time and high number of errors. The main objective of own research was to examine whether people in early, middle and late adulthood have different reflection-impulsivity cognitive style. Own studies were attended by 180 adults. For the measurement of reflection-impulsivity one used the Matching Familiar Figures test, while the test material was pictorial. The results show that subjects in early, middle and late adulthood differ in terms of cognitive style of reflection-impulsivity as measured by the MFF test. However, we wish to emphasize the fact that this result raises our doubts. The reflection-impulsivity indicator expressed as the number of errors and response time is suitable only for young adults and older one should seek other indicators of this variable. Key words: reflection-impulsivity, cognitive styles, adulthood.