Citation

Kanter MF, Coury BG. Proc. Hum. Factors Ergon. Soc. Annu. Meet. 1984; 28(8): 721.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1984, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/154193128402800819

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The notion of field dependence-field independence has been an important consideration in research assessing the impact of cognitive style on performance. The research reported in this paper assesses the importance of field dependence-field independence in a complex decision task requiring the subject to attend to multidimensional information. A simulated inspection task was chosen for this research because correct classification of faulty items was dependent upon the subject's ability to accurately weight the relative importance of each stimulus dimension. Twelve subjects were trained to classify simulated products into one of four quality control categories, and their scores on the embedded figures test was compared to their classification performance. The primary results of interest was the relative difference in classification accuracy between the two types of cognitive style. Field dependent subjects were hypothesized to be less accurate in classifying the simulated product since their cognitive style would prohibit them from ignoring irrelevant or less important stimulus dimensions. Subjects were also tested under conditions of increasingly severe time constraints in order to assess the interaction effects between cognitive style and mental workload demands. The results of this research will be discussed in terms of the importance of cognitive style and the implications of such individual strategies on decision making performance.

Language: en