The Relationship between Sex and Learning Style and Graphicacy in 14‐year‐old Children

Abstract

Abstract Two aspects of learning style in 14‐year‐old children were determined and compared with map reading performance. The two styles were: (1) field‐dependence‐independence which was assessed by means of a test of embedded figures; and (2) verbal imagery learning style which, since there is evidence that it is related to the extraversion‐introversion dimension of personality, was assessed by the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory. Map reading performance was measured on a three‐part test. The sections were: (a) map‐aerial photograph correlation, (b) symbol translation and (c) view identification. An analysis of variance indicated two significant results: (1) being field‐independent rather than field‐dependent resulted in better performance on all aspects of map reading for boys but made no difference for girls; (2) there was no difference between boys and girls on symbol translation, but on map‐photograph correlation extrovert boys did better than extrovert girls, and on view identification ambivert girls were superior to ambivert boys. The results suggest that map reading performance depends on the learning style and sex of the pupil and on the type of task.