Field independence and recognition of trait names in an incidental learning paradigm

Field-dependent individuals are known to be superior to field-independent individuals at recognizing socially relevant material in an incidental learning paradigm. The present study tested the hypothesis that this superiority is moderated by the target-relatedness of distractors. The stimuli were trait names. To assess recognition memory a recognition list was used with distractors differing in degrees of relatedness to the targets. Results indicate that the relationship of field-dependence to false recognition of distractor traits is moderated by the target-relatedness of the latter.