Is Cognitive Style Related to Link Between Procedural and Conceptual Mathematical Knowledge?


Đorđe Kadijević, Zora Krnjaić


This study examined the relation between cognitive style and link between procedural and conceptual mathematical knowledge. It used a sample of 34 mathematically talented eleventh-grade students. A significant positive correlation was found between the students' achievements on the administered Embedded Figures Tests (where ``field-dependence-independence'' cognitive style has a very specific perceptual connotation) and the measures of link between their scores on procedural and conceptual mathematical knowledge. The same relation was again found in a group of particularly talented students who participated in mathematical competitions ($N = 16$), but not in the control group comprising other talented students ($N = 18$).