Thirty‐two male college students who scored above 50 (standard score) on the Closure Flexibility (CF) test were designated field independent (FI), and eight who scored below 50 were designated field dependent (FD). It was found that FI subjects were able to discriminate between the conditioned tone (CS) and the un‐reinforced generalization tones by the amplitude of their GSR significantly better (p < 0.01) than were FD persons. Although it cannot be asserted with certainty that this relationship is dependent on the autonomic response system, there is tentative support for this position. It seems probable that even the FD subjects could distinguish between the two most different pitched tones; yet they failed to make this distinction by their GSR responses. This lack of differentiation by the FD subject appears to be a function of a less well‐differentiated autonomic nervous system. This study demonstrates that the stimulus generalization gradient involves an interaction between the cognitive style of the organism and the impinging stimuli, not merely the quantitative physical characteristics of the stimuli.