Analysis of accounting students' performance on multiple-choice examination questions: A cognitive style perspective

This study provides further evidence on the influence of cognitive style on students’ problem-solving skills in the presence of ambiguous information. To do this, the performances of 47 accounting students on ten ambiguous multiple-choice questions were evaluated in terms of their field-dependence/independence dimension of cognitive style. Results showed that field-independent students significantly out-performed field-dependent students when their general abilities were controlled for. These results which corroborate previous findings have significant implications for educators in using multiple-choice questions as a form of formal evaluation of student performance. Care should be taken to avoid highly ambiguous wording in multiple-choice questions in order not to disadvantage field-dependent students.