Lateral eye movements and field-dependence--independence.

The relationship between field-dependence--independence and lateral eye movements was investigated for a sample of 41 male and 39 female right-handed undergraduates. Subjects were administered the Portable Rod-and-frame Test, the Embedded-figures Test, and the Block Design, Object Assembly, and Picture Completion scales of the WAIS. Eye movements in response to 60 questions requiring reflective thought were recorded. Contrary to predictions, right-movers did not perform better than left-movers on the tests of field-dependence--independence. Among males, however, both consistent right- and left-movers performed significantly better than inconsistent movers. The correlation, for males, between lateral eye-movement consistency and a composite measure of field-dependence--independence was .65 (p less than .001). It was argued that eye-movement consistency and cognitive ability level are a joint function of extent of brain lateralization.