Relationship between Cognitive Flexibility and Critical Thinking Tendency: A Study on Sports Sciences Faculty Students

Year 2025, Volume: 13 Issue: 26, 1066 - 1075, 21.10.2025

Burak Karababa

https://doi.org/10.18009/jcer.1667605

https://izlik.org/JA53CS83KM

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between cognitive flexibility and critical thinking tendencies among 278 sports sciences students. Participants completed the Cognitive Flexibility Scale (CFS) and the Florida Critical Thinking Tendencies Scale. The results showed a positive and moderate correlation between cognitive flexibility and critical thinking. Additionally, gender significantly affected these skills, with female students displaying higher cognitive flexibility and critical thinking levels than males. However, no significant difference was found based on age. The study highlights that cognitive flexibility and critical thinking are interrelated cognitive skills and suggests the importance of fostering these abilities within sports sciences education. The findings are expected to inform the development of educational programs and interventions to enhance students' cognitive flexibility and critical thinking skills.

Keywords

Cognitive flexibility , critical thinking , sports sciences

References

• Altunkol, F. (2011). Examining the relationship between cognitive flexibility and perceived stress levels of university students. (Unpublished Master's thesis). Çukurova University, Adana.
• Chen, Q., Yang, W., Li, W., Wei, D., Li, H., Lei, Q., & Qiu, J. (2014). Association of creative achievement with cognitive flexibility by a combined voxel-based morphometry and resting-state functional connectivity study. Neuroimage, 102, 474-483.
• Chen, W., & Cone, T. (2003). Links between children’s use of critical thinking and an expert teacher’s teaching in creative dance. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 22(2), 169-185. https://doi.org/10.1123/jtpe.22.2.169
• Cheng, P., Tallent, G., Bender, T. J., Tran, K. M., & Drake, C. L. (2017). Shift work and cognitive flexibility: decomposing task performance. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 32(2), 143-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/0748730417699309 Çuhadaroğlu, A. (2016). Predictors of cognitive flexibility. Cumhuriyet International Journal of Education, 2(1), 86-101.
• Dajani, D. R., & Uddin, L. Q. (2015). Demystifying cognitive flexibility: Implications for clinical and developmental neuroscience. Trends in Neurosciences, 38(9), 571-578.
• Davis, J. C., Marra, C. A., Najafzadeh, M., & Liu-Ambrose, T. (2010). The independent contribution of executive functions to health related quality of life in older women. BMC Geriatrics, 10, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2318-10-16
• Demirtaş, Z., Takunyacı, M., & Yeşil, R. (2023). Examining the cognitive flexibility levels and critical thinking tendencies of religious education teacher candidates. Hitit Theology Journal, 22(2), 723-744. https://doi.org/10.14395/hid.1334350
• Dennis, J. P., & Vander Wal, J. S. (2010). The cognitive flexibility inventory: Instrument development and estimates of reliability and validity. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 34(3), 241–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9276-4
• Engel de Abreu, P. M., Abreu, N., Nikaedo, C. C., Puglisi, M. L., Tourinho, C. J., Miranda, M. C., & Martin, R. (2014). Executive functioning and reading achievement in school: a study of Brazilian children assessed by their teachers as “poor readers”. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 550. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00550
• Ennis, R. H. (2018). Critical thinking across the curriculum: A vision. Topoi, 37, 165-184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11245-016-9401-4
• Evancho, S. R. (2000). Critical thinking skills and dispositions of the undergraduate baccalaureate nursing student. Southern Connecticut State University.
• Facione, P. (1990). Critical thinking: A statement of expert consensus for purposes of educational assessment and instruction. (The Delphi Report).
• Facione, P. A. (2011). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. Insight Assessment, 1(1), 1-23.
• Fernández-Sánchez, J. C., Pérez-Mármol, J. M., Santos-Ruiz, A. M., Pérez-García, M., & Peralta-Ramírez, M. I. (2018). Burnout y funciones ejecutivas en personal sanitario de cuidados paliativos: Influencia del desgaste profesional sobre la toma de decisiones. Anales del Sistema Sanitario de Navarra, 41(2), 171–180.
• Franklin, E. I., Iwu, C. G., & Dubihlela, J. (2022). Students' views regarding the barriers to learning critical thinking. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science, 11(4), 355-364.
• Gajewski, P. D., Wild-Wall, N., Schapkin, S. A., Erdmann, U., Freude, G., & Falkenstein, M. (2010). Effects of aging and job demands on cognitive flexibility assessed by task switching. Biological Psychology, 85(2), 187-199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.06.009
• Genet, J. J., & Siemer, M. (2011). Flexible control in processing affective and non-affective material predicts individual differences in trait resilience. Cognition and Emotion, 25(2), 380-388. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2010.491647
• Gülüm, İ. V., & Dağ, İ. (2012). Adaptation, validity and reliability of the repetitive thinking scale and cognitive flexibility inventory into Turkish. Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry, 13(3), 216–223.
• Karakuş, İ. (2024). University students’ cognitive flexibility and critical thinking dispositions. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1420272
• Karasar, N. (2011). Scientific research methods. Nobel Press.
• Kılıç, H. E., & Şen, A. İ. (2014). Adaptation study of UF/EMI critical thinking disposition scale to Turkish. Education and Science, 39(176), 1-12.
• Martin, M. M., & Rubin, R. B. (1995). A new measure of cognitive flexibility. Psychological Reports, 76(2), 623-626. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1995.76.2.623
• Martins, J. T., & Gonçalves, J. (2022). Cognitive flexibility and the work context: Integrative literature review. Psicologia: Teoria e Prática, 24(2), 1-18.
• Mutlu, F., Polat, E., İlçin, M., & Kalkan, T. (2016). Investigation of critical thinking tendencies of physical education and sports school students in terms of some variables (Niğde province example). Journal of Sport Sciences Research, 1(1), 27–36.
• Nardi, P. M. (2017). Critical thinking: Tools for evaluating research. Univ of California Press.
• Orakcı, Ş. (2021). Exploring the relationships between cognitive flexibility, learner autonomy, and reflective thinking. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 41, 100838.
• Özbey, A., & Şahin, S. (2018). Examining the critical thinking tendencies and metacognitive levels of prospective teachers. Atlas International Referred Journal on Social Sciences, 4(10), 662–676.
• Rybinska, Y., Sarnovska, N., Antonivska, M., Ponochovna-Rysak, T., & Nikolaieva, T. (2021). Improving cognitive flexibility by means of associations. BRAIN. Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, 12(4), 189-205.
• Wang, C., Zhang, Z., Wiley, J. A., Fu, T., & Yan, J. (2022). Gender differences in pleasure: the mediating roles of cognitive flexibility and emotional expressivity. BMC Psychiatry, 22(1), 320. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03945-9
• Xu, C., Wells, E., LeFevre, J. A., & Imbo, I. (2014). Strategic flexibility in computational estimation for Chinese-and Canadian-educated adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(5), 1481.
• Yarayan, Y. E., Turhan, M. Ö., & Demir, G. T. (2023). Adaptation of the cognitive flexibility inventory for athletes: A validity and reliability study. Gaziantep University Journal Of Sport Science, 8(3), 221-240. https://doi.org/10.31680/gaunjss.1341783
• Yılmaz, A., & Salman, M. (2022). Examining the relationship between critical thinking dispositions of prospective teachers and their attitudes towards socio-scientific issues. e-International Journal of Educational Research, 13(1), 203-219. https://doi.org/10.19160/e-ijer.1054393
• Yu, C., Beckmann, J. F., & Birney, D. P. (2019). Cognitive flexibility as a meta-competency/Flexibilidad cognitiva como meta-competencia. Studies in Psychology, 40(3), 563-584. https://doi.org/10.1080/02109395.2019.1656463