ABSTRACT
Recent investigations of the cognitive style of field dependence/ independence (psychological differentiation) have related this construct to the degree of brain hemispheric lateralization (neuropsychological differentiation). Some authors have suggested that field-independent subjects display greater left-hemisphere lateralization for verbal processes and greater right-hemisphere lateralization for visuo-spatial processes. Pizzamiglio (1974), Pizzamiglio and Cecchini (1971), and Waber (1977) reported that persons with a stronger right-ear advantage (left hemisphere) for dichotic listening tasks, also tend to be relatively more field independent. Similarly, Oltman, Ehrlichman, and Cox (1977) reported that male and female field-independent adults exhibited a stronger left visual field (right hemisphere) bias for a right-hemisphere task (composite faces). Field-dependent subjects exhibited little or no lateralization. Zoccolotti and Oltman (1978) used tasks involving both hemispheres of the brain. They found that field-independent subjects exhibited a faster reaction time to letters in the right visual field (left hemisphere) and to faces in the left visual field (right hemisphere). Field-dependent subjects showed no significant hemisphere difference for either task. Bloom-Feshbach (1980) correlated field independence with a measure of spatial ability (right hemisphere) and with a left ear (right hemisphere) advantage on a dichotic linguistic listening task. His results suggest both a greater right-hemisphere lateralization as well as a greater integration or overlap of fundamental functions for field-independent subjects.
