Correlations among Field Dependence-Independence, Sex, Sex-Role Stereotype, and Age of Preschoolers

Abstract

Preschoolers (27 boys, mean age = 4.7 yr.; 24 girls, mean age = 4.6 yr.) were assessed for field dependence-independence (Preschool Embedded Figures Test), sex-role stereotyping (Sex-role Learning Inventory), and receptive verbal intelligence (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test--Revised). Relative to the girls, the boys were significantly less field-independent and significantly more sex-role stereotyped. After age and Peabody IQs were partialled out by multiple regression, same-sex typing in boys and cross-sex typing in girls were significant predictors of field independence. The regression analysis also suggested that, by 5.3 yr. of age, the boys as a group surpassed the girls on field independence. Limitations of the present research and educational implications of the over-all findings are discussed.

Field dependence‐independence and academic achievement: a re‐examination of their relationship

“…The sex differences as regards the apparent effects of field dependence-independence on performance in Social Sciences and Mathematics may reflect the influence of sex-rolerelated variables and other variables associated with sex. There have been no studies aimed at testing this hypothesis; however, a number of workers have investigated the separate effects of sex-role-related variables on cognitive style and on academic achievement (Balistreri & Busch-Rossnagel, 1989;Chynn, Garrod, Demick & DeVos, 1991;Hulfish, 1978;Van Blerkom, 1988;Witkin, 1979;Witkin & Berry, 1975). The results of these studies suggest that various sex-role-related variables (self-perception of sex role, differences in teachers' attitudes to boys and girls, etc.)…”

The Weak Coherence Account: Detail-focused Cognitive Style in Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…There is some evidence of normal individual differences in local-global processing from infancy (Stoecker, Colombo, Frick, & Allen, 1998), childhood (Chynn, Garrod, Demick, & DeVos, 1991), and adulthood (Marendaz, 1985). Sex differences have been reported on tasks thought to tap local-global processing (Kramer, Ellenberg, Leonard, & Share, 1996), although type (local/global) and domain (visuo-spatial/verbal) of processing are often confounded.…”

Lexical Effects on Children's Speech Processing: Individual Differences Reflected in the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ)

“…However, little is known about the extent to which individual children differ in showing this effect and whether such differences relate to any known measure of cognitive variation. It also remains to be seen whether differences in global versus local processing relate to children's speech processing, although similar individual variation has been found during infancy and childhood in visual encoding and visual pattern recognition (Chynn, Garrod, Demick, & DeVos, 1991;Stoecker, Colombo, Frick, & Allen, 1998).…”