They tend to be risk-takers more than the other three styles. Their educational background is often in technical or practical oriented jobs, often marketing and sales. Kolb points out that these types should not become stereotypes. The research on cognitive styles reveals that there is diversity and complexity in the cognitive style. Cognitive functioning in individuals will vary as a function of the area or content it focuses on.
Cultural experiences play a major role in the development and expression of cognitive functioning.
In several different research studies, Kolb found that undergraduate education was a major factor in shaping individual learning style, whether by the process of selection into a discipline, or by socialization in the course of learning in that discipline or both. The scientific professions and basic disciplines are predominately analytical, seeking to understand the wholes by identifying their components. On the other hand, the social-humanistic field tends to believe that the whole can never be explained by analytic examination of the parts. In the social professions, the dominant philosophy is pragmatism, and the truth is defined by workability. Mathematics and natural sciences are dominated by a structuralist philosophy, which seeks to distinguish the primary, essential elements and relationships in a phenomenon from the second ray, accidental relationships.