Use of three measures of field organization with young children.

Abstract

Research with children utilizing the global-analytic field articulation construct ( 4 ) has resulted in modification of test instruments for use with school-age Ss (1, 2 ) and development of other measures presumed to tap the field dependence-independence dimension ( 3 ) . Appropriateness of the modified tests for primary grade children and relationships between measures is uncertain, however. This study was conducted to determine the feasibiliry of three measures of field organization for use with young children, specifically, to consider relationships berween measures and performance according to sex groups. Forty-four children enrolled in regular classes in an Anglo, middle-SES, public school were individually administered the portable Rod-and-frame Test ( I ) , Karp and Konstadt's ( 2 ) Children's Embedded-figures Test (CEFT), and Pattern Drawing (PDT) and Pattern Walking (PWT) tests ( 3 ) . MCA and SD for the 22 boys were 87.54 and 3.68 mo.; for girls, 88.0 and 3.29 mo. On the Rod-and-frame Test (RFT) Ss responded to three blocks of four trials each, scores reflecting degrees from vertical. CEFT scores represent total number of correct responses, range 0 to 24. Walked and drawn patterns were scored 1 to 4-point scale per pattern, range of total scores 9 to 36. RFT total scores were analyzed with a 2 (sex) X 3 (blocks) analysis of variance; only the main effect of sex was significant (F = 9.04, df = 1/4, p = .05). Boys' errors were 57% to frame, 37% opposite frame. Comparable errors for girls were 72% and 24%. Boys dearly aligned the rod to uue vertical more accurately than did girls. No differences by sex were found on the CEFT. Pattern-drawing scores were also nonsignificant by sex, but pattern-walking favored boys ( t = 4.67, d f = 42, p < .01). Relationships between measures were determined with Pearson I . Values of r based on total N scores were -32, -.42, and .36 for relationships between RET-CEFT, RFT-PWT, and CEFT-PWT, respectively ( p < .01). For boys, comparable values of T were -.18, -.33, .40, only the last reaching significance ( p = .03). Values of 7 for girls were -.36 ( 9 = .O5), -.32, and .42 ( p = .02). Pattern-drawing scores were not related significantly to other measures. Findings suggest: ( a ) that the modified rod-and-frame and pattern reproduction tests are feasible and appropriate for use with primary grade school children but that the CEFT is too difficult and time consuming for children to be useful in primary school settings; ( b ) that sex differences in field organization are identifiable at this age on the modified rod-and-frame and pattern-walking tests but not on ,the CEFT or panern-drawing test; (c) when sex differences occur, boys are more field-independent than girls; ( d ) that the measures tap a common dimension but considerable variance is unexplained. REFERENCES 1. GERARD, H. Factors contributing to adjusment and achievement. Progress Report of a Joint Project of Riverside Unified School District and Univer. of California, Riverside, May, 1969. 2. KARP, S. A., & KONSTADT, N. L. Manid for Children's Embedded Figurer Test. Brooklyn: Cognitive Tests, 1963. 3. KEOGH, B. K. Partern copying under three conditions of an expanded spatial field. Developmen&l Psychology, 1971, 4. 25-31. 4. WITKIN, H. A., DYK, R. B., FATERSON, H. F., GOODBNOUGH, D. G., & KARP, S. A. Psychological differentiation. New York: Wiley, 1962.