Effects of brief sensory deprivation and somatic concentration on two measures of field dependence.

Abstract

An experiment was performed to substantiate the indirect evidence that brief sensory deprivation (SD) has different effects on two measures of field dependence, the rod-and-frame test (RFT) and the embedded-figures test (EFT) and specifically to investigate whether it is the increased awareness of somatic activity which is involved in the more veridical RFT performance while having no effect on EFT. The RFT and EFT were administered to three groups of Ss before and after one group had been submitted to 1 hr. of SD, a second group to 1 hr. of somatic concentration, and a third to a control period. The results supported the above hypothesis in that the greatest changes in RFT performance occurred in the somatic concentration condition which were significantly greater than those obtained in the SD condition, these in turn were significantly greater than those occurring in the control condition. No significant effects were obtained with respect to the EFT.