Hidden Figures Test Research Articles

An eye movement analysis system (EMAS) for the identification of cognitive processes on figural tasks

EMAS is a software system (written in VAX-11 FORTRAN) for the analysis of eye movement data recorded during the performance of figural tasks. Its main functions are: (1) Calibration of raw coordinates of eye movements to determine their actual position on the stimulus display. Different kinds of measurement distortion may be corrected. (2) Identification of eye fixations and the determination of their locations and durations. (3) Analysis of fixation sequences. The frequency of transitions of fixations among specified sectors of the stimulus display is computed. A sequential list is made of the successive fixations in which the fixated sector and the fixation duration are graphically indicated. (4) Plotting of raw or calibrated eye movement data and fixation points. The sequence of fixations in specified display sectors can also be plotted in real time. Applications of the programs to the Embedded Figures Test and the Hidden Figures Test are illustrated.

Some evidence for the hemispheric asymmetry model of lateral eye movements.

The relationship between lateral eye-movement patterns and visual spatial abilities was investigated for a sample of 94 right-handed junior high school boys and girls. Direction of gaze was recorded during reflection on a complex gross motor skill. Subjects were administered the Group Embedded Figures Test, the Kohs ' Block Design Test, the Hidden Figures Test, the Hidden Patterns Test, the Closure and Perceptual Speed Tests. Apart from the Group Embedded Figures Test and the Hidden Figures Test, low but significant positive relationships between proportion of left lateral eye-movements and visual spatial test scores were found. If lateral eye-movements are indicators of differential hemispheric activation, people with right-hemisphere predominance are more successful in solving certain visual-perceptual problems than people with left-hemisphere predominance. Finally, it is proposed that in studying relationships between lateral direction of eye-movements and field-dependence/independence, a more fruitful approach would be to investigate how people differ in their problem-solving styles to cope with embedded-figures test material in addition to determination of the performance level.

Field Independence and Myers-Briggs Thinking Individuals

The correlations between field independence-dependence and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator scales extraversion-introversion and thinking-feeling were assessed. Evans ( 1 ) , using the extraversion scale of the Maudsley Personality Inventory, found field dependence significantly correlated with extraversion while Feather (2) supported this result for women but not for men. Witkin and Goodenough (6) have characterized field-independent individuals as having an impersonal orientation, and Myers (5) has characterized thinking individuals as preferring to make impersonal decisions; this comparison leads to the current hypothesis of a relationship between field independence and thinking. The Hidden Figures Test (6) was the measure of field independence and the Myers-Briggs scales were the measures of extraversion and thinking. Both instrumenu were administered to 42 college undergraduates in technology (38 males). Parson product-moment correlations were calculated heen field independence and all four Myers-Briggs scales. The correlation between field dependence (M = 22.76, SD = 6.33) and extraversion (M = 103.36, SD = 24.74) was only .23 showing no significant relationship between field dependence and extraversion. This nonsignificant correlation supports Feather's (2) conclusion for men as well as results reported by Franks (3) for six experimental groups and by Lester (4) for three studies. Correlations berween field dependence and the additional Myers-Btiggs scales of judgment-perception and sensing-intuition were not significant as expected. The correlation between field independence and thinking (M = 83.84, SD = 26.08) was .37 (p < .02), supporting the hypothesis of a relationship between field independence and thinking and hence also between field dependence and feeling.

The effect of appearance on self-perceptions

The effect of appearance on interpersonal judgments has been demonstrated frequently. Self-perception theory suggests that any variable, such as appearance, that affects our impressions of others may also affect our impressions of self. In a test of this proposition, subjects completed the Hidden Figures Test and the vocabulary subscales from the WAIS and Binet Intelligence Tests with eyeglasses on and eyeglasses off. Wearing glasses did not affect actual performance, but subjects believed that they had performed better when wearing glasses. They also described themselves as more stable, scholarly, competent, and so on, when wearing glasses. Consistent with other work on individual differences in self-perception, these effects occurred only among subjects designated as more responsive to self-produced cues. Subjects more responsive to situational cues were unaffected by the eyeglass manipulations.

Field dependence and the factor structure of the General Health Questionnaire in normal subjects.

The factor structure of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was investigated in a non-clinical sample in relation to the role of field dependence (assessed by the Hidden Figures Test) in influencing the extent to which different aspects of psychoneurotic disturbance are differentiated. Greater differentiation was achieved by the field independent (FI) group than by the field dependent (FD) group, as shown by: (i) the proportion of variance accounted for by the general factor in the principal components analysis of the 60-item GHQ data was lower (17 per cent) in the FI group than in the FD group (33 per cent); (ii) the factor loadings in the FI group, but not the FD group, corresponded closely with the four subscales of the 28-item scaled GHQ; (iii) the interscale correlations were significantly lower in the FI group than in the FD group. The implications of these findings are discussed, particularly their relevance to 'unitary' and 'distinct-syndrome' models of minor anxiety and depressive disorders, and the greater probability of occurrence of mixed states in field dependent subjects.

Parental Attitudes toward Child Rearing and the Psychological Differentiation of Adolescents

Abstract Thirty-eight male and female undergraduates completed the Hidden Figures Test and the Modified This I Believe Test. Their mothers filled out the Short Form of the Parental Attitude Research Instrument. The hypothesis was tested that authoritarian parental attitudes would be related to simpler cognitive style. Contrary to the hypothesis, homes in which the parents held high respect (deification), but which also were an open environment for cognitive stimulation, tended to have the most differentiated offspring.

Field Independence as a Predictor of Filipino University Engineering Grades

The Hidden Figures Test (HFT) (Fitzgerald and Hunt, 1977) was found to correlate 0.32 with the grades of 186 first year engineering students at a Filipino university. When this measure of field independence was added to these students' National College Entrance Examination scores, a small but significant improvement in prediction of these grades was noted. It was suggested that quick, easily administered and scored, non-verbal group tests such as the HFT may be useful to assist selection of students for science and engineering courses in developing countries where the need for manpower planning is not matched by the number of measuring instruments available.

Re-Examination of the Relationship between Locus of Control and Field Independence/Dependence

A total of 187 American and 90 Filipino college students were given Levenson's locus of control scales and the Thurstone's Goetschaldt hidden figures test. Consistent with past studies, no linear relationship between locus of control and field-independence was found. Results point fairly consistently to the existence of a curvilinear relationship instead. Those who were high in field-independence and high in field-dependence were more external than the individuals in the middle of the field-independence/dependence dimension. A similar curvilinear relationship was observed with the Filipino and the American subjects.

Field dependence and the differentiation of affective states.

The extent to which anxiety, irritability and depression were differentiated as separate entities associated with characteristic patterns of somatic and cognitive symptoms by field dependent (FD) and field independent (FI) normal female subjects was studied with the Hidden Figures Test and Unpleasant Emotions Questionnaire. In the FI group the correlations between the three emotions were low and non-significant, reflecting a clear-cut differentiation in symptom configuration, as shown by psychiatrists. In the FD group the inter-correlations were significant and positive, corresponding to relatively poor symptom differentiation, comparable to that of a psychiatric patient group. This suggests that the cognitive style variable of field dependence may underly differences in symptom differentiation associated with psychiatrist/patient differences and, more generally, with social class and sex differences.

Field independence and input grouping in free recall

High and low scorers on the Hidden Figures Test were compared on a free recall task that involved word triads having both an associative and a rhyming relationship. The words were presented either one at a time or in a simultaneous display, with the triad members either blocked or randomly arranged in the input sequence. Field independence had little effect on total recall, and any effect on organization seemed to favor field-dependent subjects.

Psychological Differentiation and Socioeconomic and Demographic Backgrounds of a Diverse Group of College Students

The effects of a family's socioeconomic status on psychological differentiation were tested separately for performance on the Hidden Figures Test, the Hidden Patterns Test, and the Modified This I Believe Test by 53 male and 87 female white undergraduates who were varied in socioeconomic status and demographic characteristics. Contrary to hypothesis, father's socioeconomic status was not related to any of the psychological measures. Instead the socioeconomic status of the respondent's best friend, the size of the home community (inversely), and being of Northern European ethnic heritage showed more consistent prediction across the three analyses. The importance of the social status of the respondent's best friend perhaps indicates that differentiated individuals tend more to self-select complex environments in which to act than social class tends to produce differentiated individuals.

Field Dependence and Self-Esteem in Filipino Girls

It has been suggested (5) that persons with low self-esteem do not possess a welldeveloped conceptual buffer for evaluating stimuli in the environment and that they therefore tend to conform passively to the influence of the prevailing field or context. In other terminology, the low self-esteem individual is field-dependent (4). There has been little empirical investigation of this claim. However, Pawelkiewicz and McIntire (3) did report higher self-esteem for field-independent pre-adolescent boys and girls. This paper examined the relationship between self-esteem and field dependence in a South-East Asian context. The subjects were 243 seventh grade pupils of a secondary school in Cebu City, a major city in the Visayas region of the Republic of the Philippine Islands. The girls were of 11-13 yr. of age and from middle to upper class backgrounds. Subjects were given the Hidden Figures Test (2) as a measure of field dependence and the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory (1) as a measure of self-esteem. The items of the latter instrument were judged by two Filipino educationists to be suitable, with two minor changes i.n wording, for use with Filipino adolescents for whom English was the language of schooling. The scores on the Hidden Figures Test were used to divide the subjects into three groups. The top third of the scores (corresponding to Hidden Figures Test scores of 16 or above correct out of 22) were defined as field independent while the boctom third (scores of 10 or less correct) were designated field dependent. Means and standard deviations of self-esteem scores were 30.43 and 5.34 for 81 field-dependent subjeas and 31.63 and 5.64 for 81 field-independent subjeas (t = 1.40, df = 1G0, p > .O5). Although the trend was as predicted, we cannot reject the null hypothesis of no relationship between self-esteem and field independence. More empirical support is needed before the relationship between self-esteem and field independence can be considered verified.

Effects of some social variables on field dependence.

The effects of socio-economic status, father's absence, family size, and birth order on the field dependence of Grade 6 elementary school children in Jamaica, West Indies, were examined. To 206 boys and 212 girls from 5 urban schools the Hidden Figures Test and a questionnaire were administered. For girls, but not for boys, field independence correlated significantly and positively with socio-economic status, but significantly and negatively with father's absence. No significant relation existed for the boys. Field dependence had no significant relation with family size and birth order.

Heroin Addiction and Cognitive Style: Disembedding Performance in the Male Heroin Addict

SummaryField dependent individuals, who are characterized primitive, find it difficult to separate the figure‐ground relationship and consequently do poorly on embedded figure tests. Heroin addicts have also been described as being fixated at an early level of psychosexual development, using the more primitive avoidance defences. It was therefore hypothesized that addicts would be more field dependent on a perceptual disembedding task than non‐addicts. Also, although both groups should learn from practice on this task, non‐addicts will exhibit greater improvement than addicts. Thirty male addicts between the ages of 18 to 28 and an equated group of non‐addicts were administered Part 1 and Part 2 of the Hidden Figure Test cf‐1 with a 120 s interval between the parts. Both hypotheses were supported at the 0.001 level. However, these differences are not enough to distinguish addicts from other highly field dependent nosological groups. Also, additional research must be undertaken in order to understand the connection between this type of cognitive functioning and current low addict rehabilitation rates.

Hidden-figures-test performance: Lasting effects of unilateral penetrating head injury and transient effects of bilateral cingulotomy

Thurstone's Hidden Figures Test was given to two different groups of patients in a search for clues to the variables that influence early and late changes in behavior after cerebral lesion. Experiment I studied the effects of penetrating head injury in 20-yr veterans of the Korean Campaign and indicated that lasting impairment on Thurstone's test is not a necessary consequence of all unilateral cerebral pathology. Instead, performance reflected the size of the left- or right-hemisphere lesion. Experiment II explored both the short-term and long-term effects of cingulotomy performed to relieve pain or psychiatric disorder. Here, there was a transient drop in the Hidden-Figures-Test scores of patients over 30 yr old but not under 30.

Field independence and attitudes toward population control.

The hypothesis that differences between field independence and dependence would lead to different attitudes about population control activities was tested using 37 students as subjects. The Hidden Figures Test was used to measure field independence while an author-developed scale assessed attitudes. Expected relationships were found; field-independent persons were more independent of the opinions of others, agreed with active population control measures, and were in favor of smaller family size.

Cognitive style and perceptions of the ideal teacher

As part of the ongoing discussion of the implications of certain cognitive-style matches between students and teachers, the present study explores whether field-independent and field-dependent students differed in their perceptions of characteristics of an “ideal” teacher. High school students ( n = 145) completed the Hidden Figures Test and ranked as descriptors of the “ideal” teacher five teacher characteristics reflecting a more social orientation to teaching and five others reflecting a greater orientation to the task of teaching. Rankings on one of the task-oriented variables were significantly correlated ( p< .01) with higher scores on the HFT, the more field-independent students, and thus consistent with a “same style” match orientation. However, rankings of two of the other task-oriented variables were significantly correlated ( p < .01) with lower scores on the HFT (the more field-dependent students), and thus supportive of “effective combination” matches. Although taken collectively the rankings were remarkably similar, the small tendency for field-dependent students to prefer teacher traits in which they themselves are deficient deserves further exploration.

Cognitive Style and Mathematics Learning: The Interaction of Field Independence and Instructional Treatment in Numeration Systems

The relationship between a cognitive style variable, field-dependence-independence, and instructional treatments that differed in two dimensions of discovery learning, level of guidance and level of abstraction, was investigated. The four treatments used either minimum or maximum guidance with or without manipulative materials. The 116 subjects, all prospective elementary teachers, were pretested and then randomly assigned to treatments. Students were tested for immediate achievement at both the concrete and symbolic level, and then retested 4 weeks later. There was a significant (p&lt;.05p&lt;.05) aptitude-treatment interaction between field-dependence-independence (measured by the Hidden Figures Test) and level of guidance on two of the four dependent variables. As predicted, field-independent students did better with minimum guidance, whereas field-dependent students excelled with maximum guidance. Although there was one interaction between field-dependence-independence and level of abstraction, the data showed no consistent pattern for this dimension.

Adaptive Training and Individual Differences in Perception

Four types of training techniques were compared in the training of a perceptual concept-formation task. Adaptive training, a technique in which one parameter in the learning situation is varied so that the difficulty of a learning task remains constant for that individual, was compared to three intermediate approaches to training (self-adaptive, in which the trainees could control their own pace of learning by indicating when they felt they had mastered the problem, fixed sequence, and fixed task). The relationship between individual trainee's perceptual style and various stages of training was also investigated. Perceptual style was measured by the Hidden Figures Test, the Rod-and-frame Test, a Distracting Context Test, and a Cancellation Test. Results showed a definite (time to perform the task) advantage in favor of the adaptive training method. Fewer errors were committed under the self-adaptive approach, but the task completion time was significantly higher. Further analysis showed that for the adaptive-training group, measures of perceptual style could be used as predictors of future task success. No such relationship was found for other training techniques. In particular, field-independence appears to be important early in training but becomes increasingly less important, and for the final training criterion trials, is not predictive of performance. In contrast, the Distracting Contest Test-II, early in training, is not an important predictor but is an important predictor for the final criterion trials.

Cognitive style and complex concept acquisition

College undergraduates classified by the Hidden Figures Test as high, medium, or low analytic studied one of two lesson types. Both lessons taught four complex nondimensioned concepts from the area of social learning by presenting a definition followed by either positive examples or positive and negative examples. Immediate acquisition was assessed by a test requiring subjects to identify positive and negative examples. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction on the dependent variable requiring the identification of positive examples.