Abstract
This study concerned the role of field independence in letter detection during normal reading by 49 female college students. Field independence was associated with significantly better detection of silent es but only slightly better detection of sounded es. Field independence was also associated with significantly greater use of a visual than a phonological strategy in letter detection. Although use of a visual strategy was associated with significantly better detection of silent (but not sounded) es, path analysis showed that the influence of field independence on letter-detection performance was not mediated by use of a visual strategy. Rather, the effect of field independence was direct, suggesting that it is the superior visual disembedding ability of field-independent persons which is responsible for better letter detection in reading.
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