Field-dependent Learners Research Articles

The Effect of Learners' Field Independence, Cognitive Strategy Instruction, and Inherent Word-List Organization on Free-Recall Memory and Strategy Use

Abstract The authors investigated the free-recall memory performance and spontaneous strategy use of field-independent and field-dependent students when they were asked to memorize word lists that were high or low in inherent organization and when cognitive strategy instruction was provided or withheld. The results of a factorially designed experiment revealed that field-independent learners recalled more words than field-dependent learners, that more words were recalled from the word list with high inherent organization, and that more words were recalled by students who received cognitive strategy instruction. The examination of spontaneous strategy use by field-dependent and field-independent learners yielded interesting differences that were interpreted from a developmental and information-processing perspective. Results and interpretations are consistent with current views of field dependence theory. Educational implications of the present study and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Field dependence/independence and learning condition: an exploratory study of style vs ability.

Recent reviews have concluded that field-independent individuals typically show learning equal or superior to that of field-dependent individuals. However, many studies supporting these conclusions have not capitalized fully on the stylistic strengths of field-dependent learners. Among 35 field-independent and 42 field-dependent undergraduates, when grade-point average was controlled, no significant differences were found in scores on an examination following an audiotaped lecture. However, field-dependent learners significantly outperformed their field-independent peers on follow-up quizzes when material was presented interactively, using examples that required social sensitivity for full appreciation. These results are discussed as supporting the importance of further study of the stylistic aspects of field dependence/independence and the narrowness of conceptualizations of individual differences when teaching.

Field Dependence and Strategy Use

Studies have indicated that field-independent learners perform better than field-dependent learners on a variety of cognitive tasks, including performance measures of intelligence. However, little attention has been paid to the relationship between performance and strategy use. The present research investigated strategies used by field-dependent and field-independent college students on WAIS—R performance subtests. Differences in performance were found on all five subtests, while strategy differences were observed for Block Design, Picture Completion, and Object Assembly. Field-independent subjects tended to use analytic strategies on these subtests. Field-dependent subjects were less consistent, but tended towards use of global strategies.

Encoding and External-Storage Effects of Personal Lecture Notes, Skeletal Notes, and Detailed Notes for Field-Independent and Field-Dependent Learners

AbstractThe factual and higher-order achievement of field-independent and field-dependent learners was tested after exposure to lecture material by an immediate test without review of notes or by a delayed test with a review of notes. During the lecture, students engaged in one of the following three learning techniques: personal notetaking, notetaking on a skeletal outline, or listening while examining detailed instructor’s notes. Results indicated that field-independent learners generally achieved higher scores on factual and higher-order tests than did field-dependent learners. Differences in factual performance were reduced from immediate to delayed testing, indicating that field-dependent learners benefit more from the storage function of notetaking than from the initial encoding function. The three learning techniques did not produce differential achievement on the immediate factual test. Reviewing the detailed notes led to higher achievement scores on the delayed factual examination. Results indica...

Cognitive style and mathematics anxiety among high school students

The recent concern over declining mathematics achievement test scores has drawn attention to mathematics anxiety. One possible cause of the development of mathematics anxiety is cognitive learning style. The authors investigated the association of field dependent/independent cognitive style with mathematics anxiety. A three-way analysis of variance (cognitive style by achievement level by sex) was performed on math anxiety scores of 481 secondary students. Findings indicated that field dependent learners experienced more mathematics anxiety than did field independent learners. Interactions between sex and cognitive style and between achievement level and cognitive style also were significant. Implications for instruction and for future research are discussed.

Individual differences in inference processes

Information processing differences between field independent (FI) and field dependent (FD) individuals were examined by comparing the performance of 28 FI and 28 FD undergraduates on sentence verification and working memory tasks. For the sentence verification task, FI and FD learners read short passages and then verified necessary and unnecessary inferences, paraphrases, and explicit sentences based upon the passages. Reaction times revealed faster verification of necessary inferences by FI learners. For FD readers, necessary inferences took longer to verify than paraphrases. Error data showed no FI-FD differences, but working memory capacity was larger for FI than for FD learners and was related to unnecessary inference accuracy. It was concluded that FI-FD cognitive restructuring differences are related to working memory capacity and may influence verbal task performance.

Designing for diversity: Are field-dependent learners less suited to distance education programs of instruction?

Some persons may be better suited than others to the correspondence mode of instruction. The characteristics associated with the cognitive style of field-independence are similar to those which are assumed to be important for correspondence study. The present study investigated whether students who register for correspondence study tend more toward field-independence. In addition, the study investigated whether field-dependent students were more likely to drop out of their correspondence courses than field-independent students and whether field-dependent students evaluate their correspondence study experience less positively than field-independent students. The results confirmed that participation in correspondence study is associated with the cognitive style of field-independence. No significant differences were found in either persistence behavior or student evaluations of correspondence study between the field-dependent and the field-independent subjects. The absence of such differences was attributed to the finding that the subjects in the study tended more toward the cognitive style of field-independence than normative groups. The study concluded that the cognitive style of field-dependence/independence may have significant implications for the design and delivery of distance education programs of instruction, such as correspondence study.

Comments on Carol Chapelle and Joan Jamieson's "Computer-Assisted Language Learning as a Predictor of Success in Acquiring English as a Second Language". A Reader Reacts

Carol Chapelle and Joan Jamieson, in their recent article in the TESOL Quarterly (Vol. 20, No. 1, March 1986), report the results of an experiment to determine the desirability of using ESL lessons in the PLATO system with field-dependent (FD) and fieldindependent (FI) learners. One of their main findings in regard to these computer-assisted language learning (CALL) lessons was significant negative correlation between field independence and both time [spent on the lessons] and attitude [toward the lessons], indicating that highly field independent students tended not to like to work on CALL (p. 36). The second major finding was a lack of any significant correlation between time spent using and end-of-semester performance on the language measures after other relevant variables had been entered (p. 40). These comments are intended to extend Chapelle and Jamieson's discussion of these results by making certain implications of the article more explicit and by bringing some related points into the discussion of and its potential relationship to learning style. Much courseware in is designed on the pattern of programmed instruction (PI), which involves breaking a body of information down into components and sequences of components so that a learner can work at a desired individual pace with little or no assistance. The ESL lessons in the PLATO system are of this type; they are essentially a set of highly structured drill-and-practice lessons on discrete points of language (Stevens, 1983). Considering the nature of these lessons, one might have expected the FI learners, rather than the FD learners, to be the ones who would like the PLATO lessons. The systematicness of these lessons would seem to fit very well with the learning style of the FI individual, who tends to approach problem solving analytically (p. 32), in contrast with that of the FD individual, who tends to

Cognitive style: Effects of structure at acquisition and testing

This experiment examined the recall and recognition performance of 53 field-independent and 55 field-dependent learners who were with or without structure at the time of acquisition and/or at the time of recall. Structure was provided in the form of an organizational chart that prompted reorganization of textual material while taking notes at acquisition, and that cued the recall of textual material at testing. Field-dependent learners recalled more of the textual material when provided with structure during both acquisition and recall or when structure was not provided at all. Conversely, field-independent learners recalled more of the textual material when structure was provided only at acquisition or recall. This pattern of interaction was also apparent for multiple-choice performance and for learningtechnique preference as indicated by responses to a questionnaire.

Flexibility of information processing and the memory of field-independent and field-dependent learners

This study examined memory differences between 48 field-independent and 48 field-dependent learners, and it hypothesized that rigid information processing by field-dependent learners interferes with cue efficiency during memory recall. The field-independent and field-dependent learners were presented with paired associates in which the target recall words were homographs, and accompanying associates emphasized one of the homograph's two meanings. Homograph recall occurred under three conditions: (a) same cue recall, (b) different cue recall (emphasized other meaning of homograph), and (c) free recall. This study found memory differences favoring the field-independent learner and findings consistent with the rigid information processing hypothesis of field-dependent learners.

Learning and memory of field independent-dependent individuals

It has been proposed that field-independent and field-dependent learners differ more in the processes they use than in the effectiveness of their learning or retention. The present article discusses alternative explanations which emphasize developmental differences and differences in efficiency of performance between field-independent and field-dependent learners. Review of the concept learning literature and some new data suggested that the greater effectiveness of field-independent learners was related to memory efficiency and the ability to conduct combinatorial analysis. Research concerning short-term memory and free recall was also examined. High information load, greater interference potential, and less subjective organization were suggested as factors which contribute to the less efficient memory of field-dependent learners.