learning-styles

The most influential member of the cognitive structure
group is Witkin, whose bipolar dimensions of field
dependence/field independence have had considerable
influence on the learning styles discipline, both
in terms of the exploration of his own constructs
and the reactions against it which have led to the
development of other learning styles descriptors
and instruments. The educational implications of field
dependence/independence (FDI) have been explored
mainly in the curriculum areas of second-language
acquisition, mathematics, natural and social sciences
(see Tinajero and Paramo 1998a for a review of this
evidence), although its vogue as a purely learning styles
instrument has arguably passed. However, FDI remains
an important concept in the understanding of individual
differences in motor skills performance (Brady 1995)
and musical discrimination (Ellis 1996).
Three tests are used to study FD and FI: the Rod
and Frame Test, the Body Adjustment Test and the
Group Embedded Figures Test. The Rod and Frame Test
involves sitting the participant in a dark room. The
participant can see a luminous rod in a luminous frame.
The frame is tilted and the participant is asked to make
the rod vertical. Some participants move the rod so that
it is in alignment with the tilted frame; others succeed
in making the rod vertical. The former participants take
their cues from the environment (the surrounding field)
and are described as ‘field dependent’; the latter
are uninfluenced by the surrounding field (the frame)
and are described as ‘field independent’.
The Body Adjustment Test is similar to the Rod and
Frame Test in that it also involves space orientation.
The participant is seated in a tilted room and asked
to sit upright. Again, field-dependent participants
sit in alignment with the room, while field-independent
participants sit upright, independent of the angle of the
room. The Group Embedded Figures Test is a paper
and pencil test. The participant is shown a geometric
shape and is then shown a complex shape which
contains the original shape ‘hidden’ somewhere.
The field-independent person can quickly find the
original shape because they are not influenced by
the surrounding shapes; the opposite is true of the
field-dependent person. The authors claim that results
from the three tests are highly correlated with each
other (Witkin and Goodenough 1981).
Davies (1993, 223) summarises the claims made
by the authors for field dependence/independence:
‘According to Witkin and Goodenough (1981),
field independents are better than field dependents
at tasks requiring the breaking up of an organised
stimulus context into individual elements and/or
the re-arranging of the individual elements to form
a different organisation.’
Measurement of the instruments
Overall, there are two key issues in relation to
the cognitive structure learning styles: the conflation
of style with ability and the validity of the bipolar
structure of many of the measures.
Style and ability
While he reports that measures of cognitive style
appear to have test–retest reliability, Messick
(1984, 59) considers that there is an ‘unresolved
question … the extent to which the empirical
consistencies attributed to cognitive styles are instead
a function of intellective abilities’, since cognitive styles
are assessed with what he calls ‘ability-like measures’.
In particular, he argues (1984, 63) that measurements
of field independence and field dependence are too
dependent on ability: ‘by linking global style to low
analytical performance, field dependence is essentially
measured by default.’
That this weakness of the cognitive structure family
appears to be particularly true of Witkin is borne
out by empirical studies: ‘the embarrassing truth
of the matter is that various investigators have found
significant relations between the Witkin indexes,
on the one hand, and measures of verbal, mathematical
and spatial skills, on the other.’ (Kogan 1973, 166).
Indeed, Federico and Landis, in their analysis of field
dependence, category width and 22 other measures
of cognitive characteristics, found (1984, 152) that
‘all cognitive styles except reflection-impulsivity
are significantly related to ability and/or aptitudes.
Field independence has more (ie 10) significant
correlations [ranging from 0.15 to 0.34] with abilities
and aptitudes than any other style’. Huang and Chao
(2000) found that in a small study (n=60, mean age 17),
students with learning disabilities were more likely
to be field dependent than a matched group of ‘average’
students. Indeed, the construction of field dependence
as a disability in itself is highlighted by Tinajero et al.
(1993) who report on studies from the field of
neuropsychology which attempt to link field dependence
with cerebral injury, though the question as to which
hemisphere is injured is an unresolved one. The
theorists in the cognitive structure family take great
pains to differentiate between ability and style –
‘Abilities concern level of skill – the more and less
of performance – whereas cognitive styles give
greater weight to the manner and form of cognition’
(Kogan 1973, 244; original emphasis) – but we are
forced to conclude that if the measures used to assess
style are too closely linked to ability tasks, then we
may have what Henry Fielding in Tom Jones memorably
describes as ‘a distinction without a difference’.