29 male and 28 female undergraduates were administered two measures of Witkin's field-dependence dimension—the Portable Rod-and-frame Test and the Group Embedded-figures Test—and a test of facial recognition. Field-independent males were significantly more accurate in the recognition of photographed human faces than field-dependent males. Field-independent females were also more accurate than field-dependent females, although the relation was nonsignificant. While it has often been claimed that field-dependent individuals remember faces better, the results of the present study, as well as others which have examined this relationship, support the opposite conclusion.
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