Mental-Attentional Capacity: Does Cognitive Style Make a Difference?

Abstract There is currently no consensus on whether the difference between field-dependent and field-independent subjects on tasks of cognitive abilities result from different mental processing strategies, from true group differences in cognitive ability, or from both. School-age children ( N = 239) were tested for field dependence/independence using the Children's Embedded Figures Test and for mental-attentional capacity using the Figural Intersection Task. Multigroup scaling models were used to separate the contributions of style from ability in children's performance on Figural Intersection items. Results show that field-dependent children have greater odds of success than field-independent children in Figural Intersection items when the task's mental-attentional demand is above the child's mental attentional capacity, as assessed in the same task. The contrary is true when the task's mental-attentional demand is below or equal to the mental-attentional capacity of the child. Overall, field-dependent children obtain lower estimates of mental-attentional capacity than field-independent children in this task. We discuss the implications of these results for the measurement of mental-attentional capacity and the conceptualization of field dependence/independence.