AbstractMost of the articles and dissertations dealing with cognitive preferences which were written since the invention of the construct in the early 1960s have been reviewed. Fifty‐four of them were found suitable for meta‐analysis. The meta‐analysis presents means and standard deviations of reliabilities, correlations, standard scores, and effect sizes. The effects and relationships of cognitive preferences and important school and learning related variables were studied. The results provide base line data for comparative purposes and offer empirical evidence which support the construct validity of cognitive prefer