The Relationship Between Cognitive Style And Implicit/Explicit Memory

Researches show that, as far as the individual difference is concerned, implicit memory manifests significant difference. Cognitive style is a very important individual variable that affects cognitive process. Among the cognitive styles that have been confirmed, field independence-field dependence is the one studied earliest and most.By using the experimental materials of nonsense syllable clusters and separating the implicit memory and explicit memory of field independence, field dependence and neutral style, this paper employs Jacoby's process dissociation procedure to study if the individuals of different cognitive styles , during the course of processing information, have different approaches and strategies when coding and retreating materials which are matching or non-matching to their cognitive styles. The results revealed that:1. The field independence individuals do a better job than the field dependence ones in recollection, that is to say, under the circumstances of using nonsense syllable clusters as experimental materials, the explicit memory of the field independence individuals is better than that of the field dependence ones.2. The field dependence individuals do a better job than the field independence ones in automaticity, that is to say, under the circumstances of using nonsense syllable clusters as experimental materials, the implicit memory of the field dependence individuals is better than that of the field independence ones.3. In both cases of recollection and automaticity, the result of the neutral style individuals is always between that of the field independence individuals and of the field dependence ones.