Field dependence/independence and performance in school: an argument against neutrality of cognitive style.
To ascertain whether there is any relationship between field dependence/independence and performance in school, the Children's Embedded Figures Test and Embedded Figures Test were applied to 103 10- to 14-yr.-olds (55 boys and 48 girls) in Grades 5 to 8 of primary education and Grade 1 of secondary education in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), and the scores were compared with their school marks in Mathematics, Spanish, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences, and with their over-all mark. Field-independent children performed better in all subjects, especially boys. This finding appears unsupportive of the supposed neutrality of field dependence/independence and suggests that this dimension of cognitive style should be taken into account in education.
Departamento de Psicologia Evolutiva y de la Educacion, Universidad de Santiago de Compostale, Coruna, Spain.
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D000124:Achievement; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual