THE EFFECTS OF SUPPLANTATION VIA MICROCOMPUTER ON THE PERFORMANCE OF FIELD-INDEPENDENT AND FIELD-DEPENDENT STUDENTS ON A VISUAL DISCRIMINATION TASK (VISUAL MEMORY, SEARCHING, INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN)
Abstract
The problem investigated in this study was the effect supplantation (provided by a microcomputer) on the performance of field independent/dependent students when solving a task requiring discrimination of visual details in simultaneously-presented stimuli. The effects of cognitive style and the orientation of the searching process on a visual discrimination task were studied. Cognitive style was set at two levels: field-independence and field-dependence. The Hidden Figures Test was used as the measure of cognitive style. The orientation of the searching process was the designator used for the experimental treatment. This was set at three levels, according to the orientation provided on the microcomputer screen. Level one was designated discriminative orientation; level two was called random orientation; and level three was designated no-orientation or control. Three effects or dependent variables were observed: the latency of response, the accuracy of response, and the transferability of the response. Two different tasks were designed and developed to assess these variables. The experimental task was used to measure the latency and accuracy of response variables. The transfer task was designed to measure the transferability (ratio) variable. The study involved 59 volunteers from a population of undergraduates enrolled in an introductory course in educational psychology at Purdue University. The final sample consisted of 48 subjects, randomly selected from all volunteers and assigned at random to the three experimental treatments based on their cognitive style. Results showed that the instructional treatment (orientation of the searching process) was responsible for differences in performance of subjects as measured by the post-test on the experimental task for both latency and accuracy of response. Cognitive style accounted for the differences observed in performance on the transfer task. When extreme scores on the Hidden Figures Test were analyzed via an analysis of covariance, both factors (the orientation of the searching process and cognitive style) accounted for the differences observed.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Educational technology
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