Restructuring ability and patterns of physics achievement.

For a sample of 24 male and 19 female college students, persons with high visualization (F1,36 = 7.60, P less than .01) and low flexibility of closure (F1,36 = 6.54, P less than .02) attained significantly higher achievement in physics than persons with low visualization or high flexibility of closure. Persons with high restructuring ability and high spatial visualization (M = 88.64, SD = 15.6) attained a significantly higher level of physics achievement than persons with high restructuring ability and low spatial visualization (M = 56.5, SD = 25.1). Flexibility of closure, spatial visualization, and the embedded figures test accounted for 23.8%, 18.4%, and 53% of the variability in physics achievement among the entire sample, among amles, and among females, respectively. The data provided moderate support for the field-dependence--independence model of psychological differentiation and for investigators who reported a possible link between field-dependence--independence, visualization, and extent of neurological lateralization.