Perceptual strategies in short-term memory

This study investigated the performance of field-dependents/field-independe nts as measured through the Embedded Figure Test in a short-term memory tas k. 80 field-independent and 80 field-dependent male and female students wer e asked to recall nonsense syllables under distracter technique of Peterson and Peterson (1959). To gauge the effect of cognitive styles and gender di fferences a repeated measure ANOVA of the order of 2 X 2 X (5) was applied. The results favored the field-independents over field-dependents in recall ing nonsense syllables. This is due to the field-independents' better cogni tive strategies and mental imagery conditions, which helped them to perform better than the field-dependents. As expected males performed significantl y better than females.