DualProcess Developmental Trajectories in Higher Education: Comparative Neurocognitive Profiles of Rational and Experiential Processing

Prof. Dr. Leenah  Ãskaree; Aqsa  Yaqoob; Ahmad Shujāã  Baig; Engineer Ãmmaar  Baig

doi:10.63056/

Authors

Prof. Dr. Leenah Ãskaree Chairperson, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hamdard University Main Campus, Karachi, Pakistan. Post-Doctoral Fellowship at International Islamic University, International Research Institute, Islamabad, Pakistan Author
Aqsa Yaqoob PhD (Scholar), Department of Psychology, University of Karachi, Pakistan Author
Ahmad Shujāã Baig HR Consultant & Student of MPhil Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Karachi, Pakistan Author
Engineer Ãmmaar Baig Business Analyst, The Resource Group, Karachi, Pakistan Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63056/

Keywords:

dualprocess theory, rational processing, experiential processing, neurocognitive profiles, executive control, divergent thinking, Gender differences, birth order, family system, academic discipline

Abstract

Grounded in dualprocess theory (Evans & Stanovich, 2013; Kahneman, 2011) and cognitiveecological perspectives (Biglan, 1973), this study investigated how academic discipline, gender, birth order, and family system interact to influence rational (Type 2) and experiential (Type 1) processing, their balance, and neurocognitive profiles. Participants were 127 undergraduates (92 males, 35 females) from Computer Science (CS) and nonCS disciplines.

Main effects showed that CS students scored significantly higher on rational processing (M = 3.92 vs. 3.57), exhibited greater rational–experiential discrepancy (M = 0.31 vs. –0.27), and outperformed nonCS students on executive control tasks, ps < .01. NonCS students demonstrated stronger experiential processing (M = 3.88 vs. 3.61) and higher divergentthinking and associativefluency scores (Runco & Acar, 2012), ps < .05.

Gender moderated several outcomes: female CS students displayed the largest rational advantage (d > 1.20) over female nonCS peers and retained greater flexibility than males, while the experiential gap between CS and nonCS was narrower for women. Birth order patterns indicated that firstborn CS students possessed the highest rational and executive control scores (Sulloway, 1996), whereas lastborn nonCS students excelled in flexibility and ideational fluency. Family system effects revealed that nuclearfamily CS students had the strongest rational dominance and largest executive control gap, while jointfamily nonCS students recorded the highest experiential orientation and flexibility (Kağıtçıbaşı, 2007; Georgas et al., 2006).

Collectively, the findings support a discipline–context fit model, where cognitive specialisation emerges from the interplay of disciplinary demands and sociofamilial socialisation. This multidimensional framework has implications for curriculum design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and targeted cognitiveskill development to prepare graduates for analytically demanding and ambiguityrich problem spaces.