Effect of Cognitive Style on Strategies for Comprehension of Prose

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Abstract
The effect of cognitive style on the performance of four groups who used different strategies of study to comprehend prose was investigated. Performance on Group Embedded Figures Test was used to classify subjects into groups by cognitive style. 201 field-dependent and 125 field-independent subjects enrolled in an introductory course in psychology were subjects. Field-independent subjects performed significantly better overall. In particular, field-independent subjects in the control group and the groups given factual and inferential questions as study aids performed better than the field-dependent subjects on the inferential items at posttest. On the factual items at posttest, field-independent subjects performed significantly better only in the group who were given inferential questions as an adjunct. The cognitive styles of the subjects interacted with the strategies of study and seem to affect performance on comprehension of prose at posttest.