Traditionalism and Field Dependence: A Failure to Replicate

The relationship between preschool children's field dependence-independence and mothers' traditionalism and intellectual stimulation provided in the home was investigated in rural Guatemala. Contrary to several previous studies-which have not measured traditionalism at the level of the family, but rather compared children from more and less traditional communities-EFT scores were found to be unrelated to traditionalism. EFT scores were related to both material sources of stimulation as well as to the presence of better educated older siblings in the home. It was argued that in previous studies traditionalism has been confounded with other variables such as the availability of intellectual stimulation.