Mental-Attentional Capacity: Does Cognitive Style Make a Difference?

Abstract

There is currently no consensus on whether the difference between field-dependent and fieldindependent subjects on tasks of cognitive abilities result from different mental processing strategies, from true group differences in cognitive ability, or from both. School-age children (N ϭ 239) were tested for field dependence/independence using the Children's Embedded Figures Test and for mental-attentional capacity using the Figural Intersection Task. Multigroup scaling models were used to separate the contributions of style from ability in children's performance on Figural Intersection items. Results show that field-dependent children have greater odds of success than field-independent children in Figural Intersection items when the task's mental-attentional demand is above the child's mental attentional capacity, as assessed in the same task. The contrary is true when the task's mental-attentional demand is below or equal to the mental-attentional capacity of the child. Overall, field-dependent children obtain lower estimates of mental-attentional capacity than field-independent children in this task. We discuss the implications of these results for the measurement of mental-attentional capacity and the conceptualization of field dependence/ independence.

Difference in Visual Processing Assessed by Eye Vergence Movements

“…Thus our current findings may be explained in terms of attentional differences between FI and FD subjects. The idea that perceptual style is ascribed to distinctive attentional abilities [15-17] agrees with such notion. Some studies suggest that FD subjects have greater difficulty in maintaining attention on a given aspect of information and in attending selectively to relevant cues, particularly in the presence of distracting elements [16,23].…”

“…Individuals with a global perceptual style have problems to ignore the spatial context of a stimulus (field dependent observers; FD) while individuals with a local style are not so influenced by surrounding stimuli (field independent observers; FI). Perceptual style is attributed to differentiation in brain organization [14] that may result in distinctive attention and spatial abilities [15-18]. …”

Toddler working memory skills predict kindergarten school readiness

“…For example, the task in the present study is likely to have indirectly accessed attentional and inhibitory skills as well working memory (Baillargeon, Pascual-Leone, & Roncadin, 1998). These cognitive skills in turn are likely to have played a role in the development of productive learning behavior in the youngest of primary school students.…”

Mental attention in gifted and nongifted children

“…The level of difficulty of the items is due to three factors: firstly, the level of M required by each item (for example, the number of relevant shapes that must be remembered); secondly, the dynamic Gestaltist patterning created by the geometric composition and thirdly, the number and complexity of the strategies elicited by the context of each item. FIT is a well-studied measure of M capacity (Baillargeon, Pascual-Leone, & Roncadin, 1998;Pascual-Leone & Ijaz, 1989;Pascual-Leone & Johnson, 2001). The M-capacity tasks were nonspeeded, and instructions for these tasks emphasized accuracy only.…”