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THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIES IN EMBEDDED FIGURES TASKS *
Author(s) -
Pennings Albèr
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1080/00207598808247753
Subject(s) - psychology , dimension (graph theory) , construct (python library) , test (biology) , independence (probability theory) , developmental psychology , social psychology , statistics , computer science , mathematics , paleontology , pure mathematics , biology , programming language
The starting point of the investigation was the field dependence‐independence construct as measured with the Embedded Figures Test of H.A. Witkin. An overview of the research on the information‐processing strategies in solving the items of this test was converging into a theory in which strategies for a successful solution can be located on a bipolar dimension with at one extreme a simultaneous strategy and at the other extreme a successive strategy. A new administration procedure for evaluating the use of four solution strategies was developed: the simultaneous, the successive, the extemalized‐successive and the global‐manipulatory strategy. Based on the prediction that the use of strategies was related to sex and age, we carried out an experiment involving groups of ten boys and ten girls of 5, 6 and 7 years of age, who were given eight tasks with the new administration procedure. No. significant difference was found between boys and girls. However, significant differences existed in strategy profiles in six of the eight tasks between the three age groups.