Cognitive Style and the Reading Process: Field-Dependence Differences on a Lexical-Decision Task

Abstract

This study examined cognitive-style differences in reading strategies on a lexical-decision task. Subjects made word/nonword judgments for letter sequences consisting of either real words, English-sounding nonwords, or non-English-sounding nonwords. In line with previous findings, responses were significantly slower to English-sounding nonwords than to non-English sounding nonwords. This effect was qualified by a significant interaction with field dependence such that field-dependent subjects were significantly slower than field-independent subjects for English-sounding nonwords but not for non-English-sounding nonwords or for real words. These findings complement a 1988 finding by Davies that field-dependent scorers prefer a phonological strategy for lexical access and they provide better evidence for the role of such process differences in normal reading.