EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE STYLE AND CONTEXT ON CREATIVITY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

The study examined effects of cognitive style and context on creativity using one hundred and twelve (112) participants drawn from Capital City Secondary School Awka, Nigeria. Participants’ responses from Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) and Alternate Uses Task (AUT) used in measuring cognitive style and creativity respectively were subjected to 2-way ANOVA statistical test. The results of the analysis showed a significant main effect for cognitive style, F(1, 108) = 8.07, p < .005 with the field-independent (M = 13.63, SD = 3.50) performing better on creativity task than the field-dependent (M = 11.75, SD = 3.69), which confirmed hypothesis I. Also, a significant main effect was observed for context, F(1, 108) = 6.88, p < .01 with the same environmental context (M = 13.55, SD = 3.32) performing better on creativity task than the different environmental context (M = 11.82, SD = 3.89), which also confirmed hypothesis II. The implications of the findings are that field-independent and field-dependent students performed differently to the same and different environmental context on creativity tasks. Suggestions were made for further study.