CEREBRAL DOMINANCE AND COGNITIVE STYLE AMONG INDOCHINESE CHILDREN
Author(s):
Mounts, Zella Zink
Format:
Thesis
Degree granted:
Ph.D.
Publisher:
Ann Arbor : University of Washington, 1987.
Pages:
216
Language:
English
Abstract:
Fifty-six children from Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese refugee groups, collectively identified as Indochinese, in English-as-a-Second-Language classrooms of a Western Washington school district were studied to identify cerebral dominance and cognitive style. The ages ranged from 6 to 14 years; 31 were males and 25 were females. Results of tests identified with left-right hemispheric dominance and successive-simultaneous information processing failed to correlate as described. Oneway Analysis of Variance comparing test means showed that the Indochinese children scored higher than the normative sample on the Coding of the WISC-R and the Children's Embedded Figures Test and lower than the normative sample on the Block Design of the WISC-R. On the Children's Embedded Figures Test the mean Indochinese score was 15.8 compared to 13.0 of the normative sample. The mean was significant at ages 7-8 (N = 10) and near significance at age 6 (N = 7) and ages 9-10 (N = 17). Increased sample size might have produced significant scores at all ages. The results of the three tests suggested that the Indochinese children demonstrate analytic and Field Independent cognitive styles. Other tests used were the Rhythm Test of the Seashore Music Battery, the Similarities and Digit Span of the WISC-R. The Similarities subtest was discarded because of linguistic-translation difficulties. Regression analysis of age with all measures found the shared variance was 28-45 percent; no correlations were significant. Point biserial correlation of sex with the measures were non-significant except for the Block Design test in which scores were higher for males than females. Effective choices of teaching methodology, curriculum design, and teacher selection are influenced by the conflict or compatibility with student characteristics including the cognitive styles and information processing preferences that are identified with hemispheric lateralization. Suggestions for the education of Indochinese children were reviewed.