p. 284 as cited in: Nigel Ford (2000) "Cognitive Styles and Virtual Environments" in: Journal of the American Society for Information Science. Vol 51, Is. 6, p. 547.
“

Holists are distinguished from serialists in terms of the number of inferential statements they produce... It is possible to distinguish the serialist from the holist by a tendency, on the part of a serialist, to preserve the order of the programme presentation format which is absent in the holist. Presented with a holist programme the serialist is unable to preserve the complete order but he does manage to preserve sequentially arranged fragments.

— Gordon Pask

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Holists are distinguished from serialists in terms of the number of inferential statements they produce... It is possible to distinguish the serialist from the holist by a tendency, on the part of a serialist, to preserve the order of the programme presentation format which is absent in the holist. Presented with a holist programme the serialist is unable to preserve the complete order but he does manage to preserve sequentially arranged fragments." in the context of "p. 284 as cited in: Nigel Ford (2000) "Cognitive Styles and Virtual Environments" in: Journal of the American Society for Information Science. Vol 51, Is. 6, p. 547." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Gordon Pask" (Quotes, Learning Strategies and Individual Competence (1972): Source: Pask, G. & Scott, B.C.E. (1972) "Learning strategies and individual competence" in: International Journal of Man-Machine studies vol.4 pp.217-253.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Gordon Pask

About Gordon Pask

Andrew Gordon Speedie Pask (June 28, 1928 – March 29, 1996) was an English cybernetician and psychologist who made significant contributions to cybernetics, instructional psychology, experimental epistemology and educational technology.