Cross-cultural variations in identifying embedded figures - Comparisons from the United States, Germany, Russia, and Malaysia

Previous studies have found cross-cultural variation in field dependence. I n this study, cross-cultural differences were expected depending on the deg ree of individualism or collectivism of the respective cultures. Samples we re taken from two prototypically individualist cultures, the United States and Germany, and two collectivist cultures, Russia and Malaysia. As predict ed, field dependence did not differ between those samples that represented the same type of culture, either collectivist or individualist. However, a clear difference could be found between the two types of cultures; that is, U.S. and German participants were more field independent than were Russian and Malaysian participants.