The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) is a system to measure and describe thinking preferences in people, developed by William "Ned" Herrmann while leading management education at

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

's Crotonville facility. It is a type of

cognitive style Cognitive style or thinking style is a concept used in cognitive psychology to describe the way individuals think, perceive and remember information. Cognitive style differs from cognitive ability (or level), the latter being measured by aptitude ...

measurement and model, and is often compared to psychological assessments such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Learning Orientation Questionnaire,

DISC assessment DISC assessments are behavioral self-assessment tools based on the 1928 DISC emotional and behavioral theory of psychologist William Moulton Marston. The tools are designed to predict job performance. However, the scientific validity of DISC has b ...

, and others.

Brain dominance model

In his brain dominance model, Herrmann identifies four different modes of thinking: *A. Analytical thinking :Key words: logical, factual, critical, technical, quantitative. :Preferred activities: collecting data, analysis, understanding how things work, judging ideas based on facts, criteria and logical reasoning. *B. Sequential thinking :Key words: safekeeping, structured, organized, complexity or detailed, planned. :Preferred activities: following directions, detail-oriented work, step-by-step problem solving, organization, implementation. *C. Interpersonal thinking :Key words: kinesthetic, emotional, spiritual, sensory, feeling. :Preferred activities: listening to and expressing ideas, looking for personal meaning, sensory input, group interaction. *D. Imaginative thinking :Key words: visual, holistic, intuitive, innovative, conceptual. :Preferred activities: looking at the big picture, taking initiative, challenging assumptions, visuals, metaphoric thinking, creative problem solving, long-term thinking. His theory was based on theories of the modularity of cognitive functions, including well-documented specializations in the brain's cerebral cortex and limbic systems, and the research into left-right brain lateralization by

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Robert Ornstein Robert Evan Ornstein (August 21, 1942 – December 20, 2018) The web page gives the birth year as 1942. was an American psychologist, researcher and author. He taught at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, based at the University of ...

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, and

Michael Gazzaniga Michael S. Gazzaniga (born December 12, 1939) is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the USA, where he heads the new SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. He is one of the leading researchers in cognitiv ...

. These theories were further developed to reflect a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

for how individuals think and learn. Use of that metaphor brought later criticism by brain researchers such as

Terence Hines Terence Hines (born 22 March 1951) is a professor of psychology at Pace University, New York, and adjunct professor of neurology at the New York Medical College; he is also a science writer. Hines has a BA from Duke University, and an MA and P ...

for being overly simplistic, though advocates argue that the metaphorical construct has been beneficial in organizational contexts including business and government. Herrmann also coined the concept ''Whole Brain Thinking'' as a description of flexibility in using thinking styles that one may cultivate in individuals or in organizations allowing the situational use of all four styles of thinking.Herrmann, Ned (1999) pp.1-3

The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument

The format of the instrument is a 116-question online assessment, which determines the degree of preference for each of the model's four styles of thinking. More than one style may be dominant (or a primary preference) at once in this model.Terence (1987) p.604 For example, in Herrmann's presentation a person may have strong preferences in both analytical and sequential styles of thinking but lesser preferences in interpersonal or imaginative modes, though he asserts all people use all styles to varying degrees. A 1985 dissertation by C. Bunderson, currently CEO of the non-profit EduMetrics Institute asserts that "four stable, discrete clusters of preference exist", "scores derived from the instrument are valid indicators of the four clusters", and "The scores permit valid inferences about a person's preferences and avoidances for each of these clusters of mental activity".

Consulting and training

Based on the HBDI Assessment and Whole Brain model, Herrmann International and its global affiliates offer consulting and solutions (including workshops, programs, books and games) to improve personal or group communication, creativity, and other benefits.

Critiques

Self reporting

Measurements that require people to state preferences between terms have received criticism. Researchers C. W. Allinson and J. Hayes, in their own 1996 publication of a competing cognitive style indicator called '' Cognitive Style Index''Hodgkinson and Sadler-Smith (2003) pp.1-2 in the peer reviewed

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, noted that "there appears to be little or no published independent evaluation of several self-report measures developed as management training tools. ncludingHerrmann Brain Dominance Instrument." However, some find usefulness in self reporting measurements. Researchers G.P. Hodgkinson and E. Sadler-Smith in 2003 found cognitive style indicators generally useful for studying organizations. However, in a critique of the ''Cognitive Style Index'' indicator they opined that progress in the field had been "hampered by a proliferation of alternative constructs and assessment instruments" many unreliable with a lack of agreement over nomenclature. To measure self-report consistency, a

differential item functioning Differential item functioning (DIF) is a statistical characteristic of an item that shows the extent to which the item might be measuring different abilities for members of separate subgroups. Average item scores for subgroups having the same overa ...

review of HBDI was published in 2007 by Jared Lees. However, his tests were supported by EduMetrics, a company on contract with Herrmann International to evaluate the system, and were therefore not completely independent.

Lateralization

Herrmann International describes an underlying basis for HBDI in the

lateralization of brain function The lateralization of brain function is the tendency for some neural functions or cognitive processes to be specialized to one side of the brain or the other. The median longitudinal fissure separates the human brain into two distinct cerebr ...

theory championed by Gazzaniga and others that associates each of the four thinking styles with a particular locus in the human brain. Analytical and sequential styles are associated with left brain and interpersonal and imaginative styles are associated with right brain, for example. Ned Herrmann described dominance of a particular thinking style with dominance with a portion of a brain hemisphere. The notion of hemisphere dominance attracted some criticism from the neuroscience community, notably by Terence Hines who called it "pop psychology" based on unpublished

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data.Hines (1985) p.1Terence Hines (1987) p.600 He asserts that current literature instead found that both hemispheres are always involved in cognitive tasks and attempting to strengthen a specific hemisphere does not improve creativity, for example. Hines stated "No evidence is presented to show that these 'brain dominance measures' measure anything related to the differences between the two hemispheres. In other words, no evidence of validity f hemisphere dominanceis presented.".

Creativity

Herrmann offered creativity workshops based on leveraging all the quadrants within the Whole Brain Model, rather than focusing on physiological attributes. strengthening particular thinking styles and strengthening the right hemisphere, which received critiques that creativity is not localized to a particular thinking style nor to a particular hemisphere.Hines (1987) p.603 A study published in the peer reviewed ''Creativity Research Journal'' in 2005 by J. Meneely and M. Portillo agreed that creativity is not localized into a particular thinking style, such as a right-brain dominance resulting in more creativity. They did however find correlation between creativity in design students based on how flexible they were using all four thinking styles equally as measured by the HBDI. When students were less entrenched in a specific style of thinking they measured higher creativity using Domino's Creativity Scale (ACL-Cr).Meneely and Portillo (2005) p.1

References

* Allinson, C.W., & Hayes, J. (1996) 'Cognitive Style Index: A measure of intuition-analysis for organizational research', ''

'', 33:1 January 1996 * Bentley, Joanne and Hall, Pamela (2001) ''Learning Orientation Questionnaire correlation with the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument: A validity study'' Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol 61(10-A), Apr 2001. pp. 3961.
Deardorff, Dale S.
(2005
''An exploratory case study of leadership influences on innovative culture: A descriptive study''
Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, Vol 66(4-B), 2005. pp. 2338. * DeWald, R. E. (1989). Relationships of MBTI types and HBDI preferences in a population of student program managers (Doctoral dissertation, Western Michigan University, 1989). Dissertation Abstracts International, 50(06), 2657B. (University Microfilms No. AAC89-21867) * Herrmann, Ned (1999) ''The Theory Behind the HBDI and Whole Brain Technology'
pdf
* Hines, Terence (1991) 'The myth of right hemisphere creativity.' ''Journal of Creative Behavior'', Vol 25(3), 1991. pp. 223–227. * Hines, Terence (1987) 'Left Brain/Right Brain Mythology and Implications for Management and Training', ''The Academy of Management Review'', Vol. 12, No. 4, October 1987 * Hines, Terence (1985) 'Left brain, right brain: Who's on first?' ''Training & Development Journal'', Vol 39(11), Nov 1985. pp. 32–34. ournal Article* Hodgkinson, Gerard P., and Sadler-Smith, Eugene (2003) ''Complex or unitary? A critique and empirical re-assessment of the Allinson-Hayes Cognitive Style Index.'', Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 09631798, 20030601, Vol. 76, Issue 2 * Holland, Paul W. and Wainer, Howard (1993) ''Differential Item Functioning'' * Krause, M. G. (1987, June). A comparison of the MBTI and the Herrmann Participant Survey. Handout from presentation at APT-VII, the Seventh Biennial International Conference of the Association for Psychological Type, Gainesville, FL. * Lees, Jared A. (2007) ''Differential Item Functioning Analysis of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument'' Masters Thesis, Brigham Young University
on ScholarsArchive
* McKean, K. (1985) 'Of two minds: Selling the right brain.', ''Discover'', 6(4), pp. 30–41. * Meneely, Jason; and Portillo, Margaret; (2005) ''The Adaptable Mind in Design: Relating Personality, Cognitive Style, and Creative Performance.'' Creativity Research Journal, Vol 17(2-3), 2005. pp. 155–166. ournal Article* Wilson, Dennis H. (2007) ''A comparison of the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument(TM) and the extended DISCMRTM behavior profiling tool: An attempt to create a more discerning management perspective.'' Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol 68(3-A). pp. 1079.