| There has been numerous researches about cognitive style since it was put forward. Of the cognitive styles that have been identified, field dependence-independence has received the greatest research attention over the years. As a kind of relatively steady individual differences, cognitive style is regarded as an important personality dimension. According to the studies about the origins or essence of cognitive style, we came to realize the differences of cognitive styles was in nature the result of the differences in the neurophysiological mechanism. As a kind of objective and effective research approach, the technique of event-related potential(ERP) has been used widely in many aspects with the development of neuroelectrophysiology and computer technology since the 60s of the 20th century. The event-related potential(ERP) is a neural signal that reflects coordinated neural network activity. In the field of psychology, ERP method is a available tool to study the cognitive processing( perception, attention, memory etc.) and cognitive function. Already there has been ERP researches about field dependent-independent cognitive style which suggest the existence of cerebral electrophysiological differences in working memory and inhibition processes between different cognitive style individuals. In terms of the neurophysiological mechanism of field dependent-independent cognitive style, there used to be many investigations between cognitive styles and lateralization or lateral asymmetry of the brain function. The two hemispheres are different from each other in auditory processing, cognition, emotion and so on. It can be simply summarized that the working style of the left hemisphere is analytical, while the right hemisphere is global. Compared with the cognitive style dimension of field dependence-independence, the style of processing information in the left hemisphere is correlated with field independence, and that of the right hemisphere is correlated with field dependence. Many previous neuropsychological analysis of the field dependent-independent cognitive style concentrate on the left-right axe of the brain, i.e. lateralization and specialization. However, the present further studies suggest the behavioral phenomena associated with cognitive style are a function of the interaction between the front-back (especially the frontal lobe) and left-right axes of the CNS (central nervous system). The resemblance of the cognitive style phenomena to aspects of hemispheric specialization can be viewed as an manifestation stemming from the efficiency of processes associated with the frontal brain systems. Researchers(Goode, et. al., 1995, 2002) suggest the field dependent-independent cognitive style differences along a dimension of cognitive restructuring ability may be attributed to differential engagement of the central executive processes of prefrontal cortex. The purpose of this study was to investigate field dependent-independent cognitive style individuals with the technique of ERP, exploring the brain function of different cognitive styles individuals and their characteristics or differences of cerebral electrical activity when performing specific cognitive tasks. The study was to help us further understand the neurophysiological bases of cognitive style and investigate cognitive tasks or experimental paradigm in cognitive style ERP studies through experiments. The subjects were 24 undergraduates (12 males and 12 females) selected from a college in Jinan, whose ages ranged from 19.2 to 22.5 years. Among them 12 extreme field independence(6 males and 6 females) and 12 extreme field dependence(6 males and 6 females). The EFT (Embedded Figure Test) were used to assess cognitive style. According to the scores, the extreme subjects were selected and grouped. All were right handed as determined by self-report, and had normal or corrected to normal vision , none color blindness. None of them had brain disease or used excitant drugs before the experiments, and had never taken part in such an ERP experiment. The study included two experiments: 1. Figure task to explore the differences of cerebral electrical activity when different cognitive styles individuals (FD and FI) were performing specific cognitive tasks; 2. STROOP test to examine the cerebral electrical activity of different cognitive styles individuals during the task, especially the characteristic of activity in the frontal lobe. The EEG was recorded by the 32 channel quik-cap and amplified by the SynAmps equipment produced by Neuroscan company. The recording frequency band was 0.05~100Hz with an A/D rate 500Hz, all the data was stored for off-line analysis. The main results in the study were: 1. In the figure experiment, there were significant differences between field... |
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