Field Dependence-independence Dimension Research Articles

Effects of a writing strategy on improving text production skills among primary school students

The purpose of this research was to analyze the effects of a writing strategy for text production among primary school students with different cognitive styles (CS) in the field dependence-independence (FDI) dimension. The writing strategy is based on collaborative work, autonomous work, and work integrating technology, which is referred to as ACOTEC. The study was developed with a population of 63 students distributed in two randomly formed groups: one control and one experimental group. The control group developed writing exercises guided by a conventional strategy following the writing teaching processes according to the institution’s curriculum, while the experimental group adopted the ACOTEC strategy for the writing exercises. The results show the promising effects of the strategy on improving text production skills among primary school students with different CS in the FDI dimension.

The Impact of a Cooperative Learning Program on the Academ-ic Achievement in Mathematics and Language in Fourth Grade Students and its Relation to Cognitive Style

Abstract This study is expected to determine the impact of a program based on the cooperative learning methodology. This, in comparison to a traditional learning situation in both mathematics and language achievement. The study was carried out on a group of fourth grade students of primary school. In addition, it tried to find the differential impact according to the cognitive style in the field dependence-independence dimension. This work was carried out with 76 students of the Colegio José Martí I.E.D. (Bogotá-Colombia) ranging from 8–12 years of age. The control group received a traditional teaching methodology and the experimental group received the cooperative learning program, composed of 35 sessions (from July to November 2009). All the participants were tested in mathematics and language performance, before and after the intervention. All of them were tested in cognitive style as well. The results suggested that the cooperative learning methodology benefited importantly the academic achievement of the students in mathematics in contrast to the competitive and individualist situations. The results also suggested that the three cognitive style groups were positively affected from the cooperative learning situation. These results were not found in the language area.

Incidencia de la realidad aumentada sobre el estilo cognitivo: caso para el estudio de las matemáticas

The association between learning achievement in mathematics, cognitive style in the field dependence/independence dimension (FDI), and augmented reality (RA) in a virtual learning environment is analyzed in this research. A quantitative descriptive/correlational study was structured to that end, with a quasi-experimental design and two groups: one experimental and the other a control group with non-comparable pre and post tests. The study involved 83 students who were majoring in industrial engineering at the Colombian College of Industrial Studies (ECCI) in Bogota. The finding show that use of the augmented reality model, implemented as a strategy for natural interaction with digital objects to learn functions in several variables, made it possible to obtain better results in terms of more effective and significant learning achievement among students who were enrolled in the vector calculus teaching unit, with intermediate and independent typology in the FDI dimension.

Escritura inicial y estilo cognitivo

Comparative effects of two methods used for teaching writing at the initial level were examined: the global and syllabic approaches and their interaction with cognitive style in the field dependence-independence dimension (FDI), in 31 first-grade children from two school groups and from two different institutions, where each one of the methods were implemented. CEFT test was applied to determine the cognitive style, and a writing test called text-building exercise was also used at the beginning of the academic year and four months later. The final results were esamined through covariance analysis, in which the achievements recorded four months earlier were controlled as covariates. In general, data show clear advantages of the global method over the syllabic method, specifically for field-dependent and intermediate style children in six out of eight indicators examined. These results are explained on the basis of distinctive features of the cognitive style in this dimension.

EL ESTILO COGNITIVO Y SU INFLUENCIA EN LA SOLUCIÓN DE PROBLEMAS EN QUIMICA. Un estudio en el aula de clase

The experimental study was made to get additional empirical evidence to show how thecognitive style in its field dependence-independence dimension differentiate studentswith different aptitude to solve chemistry problems. Twenty eight students participated,11 female and 17 male, average age seventeen. The test used was a set of simpleproblems, to obtain information about level of perception and selected strategy to get anappropriate solution.

The Relationship Between Matching Teachers’ and Students’ Cognitive Styles and the Students’ Academic Achievement

This study examined the relationship between the matching of teachers and students’ cognitive styles (Field dependence independence dimension) and the students'academic achievement Third and sixth grade female teachers and a sample of their Students (six females and six males) were administered the appropriate versions of the Embedded Figures Test to identity their cognitive style. The students were also administered Forms A and B of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skillsduring an interval of one year to assess their academic achievement An analysis of covariance indicated that the teachers and students’ cognitive styles influenced the students’ academic achievement. Significant pre‐test and post test interactions were found between the teachers and students’ cognitive styles indicating higher achievement scores for the students of field independent teachers.

Relation of field independence and test‐item format to student performance on written piagetian tests

AbstractIn this study we have investigated the relationship between the field‐dependence‐independence (FDI) dimension as measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) and subject performance on the Longeot test, a pencil‐and‐paper Piagetian test, through the open or closed format of its items. The sample consisted of 141 high school students. Correlation and variance analysis show that the FDI dimension and GEFT correlate significantly on only those items on the Longeot test that require formal reasoning. The effect of open‐ or closed‐item format is found exclusively for formal items; only the open format discriminates significantly (at the 0.01 level) between the field‐dependent and ‐independent subjects performing on this type of item. Some implications of these results for science education are discussed.

Selection of reference frames and the 'vicariance' of perceptual systems.

Interindividual differences in field dependence-independence (FDI) which emerge in situations of vision-posture conflict when subjects are required to orient their bodies vertically were investigated. The first aim was to see whether the same interindividual differences are found in judgements of the orientation of forms in focal vision in which subjects have to deal with conflicting spatial references processed by different sensory modalities. The second aim was to test the idea that the FDI dimension is due to functional habits linked to balancing. Subjects performed Kopfermann's (1930) shape-orientation task in either a stable (experiment 1) or an unstable (experiment 2) postural condition. Results showed that the FDI dimension comes into play in the solution of the Kopfermann shape orientation task, and that there is an interactive link between FDI and postural balance, consistent with theoretical expectations. More generally, it appears that the 'choice' of a spatial reference system is the product of both individual and situational characteristics, and that the 'vicariance' (or interchangeability) of the sensory systems dealing with gravitational upright is at the basis of this interaction.

Use of three measures of field organization with young children.

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.

Altering field dependence through stress.

Some researchers have noted the stability and regularity of field independence ( I ) , an ability to overcome embedding context-to experience an item independently of an organized field of which it is a part, suggesting chat, somewhat like intelligence, field independence has a basic maturational basis. However, as an element of cognitive style, a person's field-dependent functioning may vary considerably, especially under threat to selfesteem which weakens internal frames of reference. Ss were 17 volunteer female college freshmen, tested individually in two sessions. In the first, a standard field-dependence rating was established for each S, using a modified version of Widria's Rod-and-Frame Test (RFT) which defines field dependence in terms of a limited visual field (dark room, luminous square frame, luminous rod independently rotated at various angles); S tells E when the rod is positioned vertically with respect to gravity, the frame serving as a misleading item in the perceptual field. In Session 2 a week later, the 13 experimental Ss (but not the 4 controls) were asked ro take part in a supposedly unrelated test of their abilities to assess the social desirability standards of their upper-classmen as determined by survey. Using items from various personality inventories, Ss guessed the upper-classmen's results. Ss were told that they were wrong 56% of the time, were interrupted at pre-determined intervals by critical questions and glances, and at the end were told that they had done more poorly than other Ss. Stress was manifest in comments and post-test complaints. All 17 Ss were taken to the RFT room and given the same instructions as before. A rank-order correlation of .89 for RFT scores of experimental Ss over sessions indicated that the relative position of each S on the field dependence-independence dimension remained stable. A t of 2.19 ( P .25, d f = 5, one-tailed test), indicating these Ss were more affected by the social desirability test. The difference between the mean group changes was not significant ( t = 1.07, d f = 12, p = .20, one-tailed test). The little experiment suggests that stress-situations which threaten or deny the person's self-esteem will increase field dependence. This dimension is open to some control by S. Replication with a larger sample is planned.