Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1987, 65, 123-134. @ Perceptual and Motor Skills 1987 STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF INSTRUCTION, COGNITIVE STYLE, AND ACHIEVEMENT1 RONALD W. MARX, DAWN C. HOWARD,' PHILIP H. WINNE Simon Fsaser University Summary.--One purpose of this study was to explore relations of field dependence/independence and locus of control with students' perceptions of a teacher's use of instructional cues and the cognitive responses the teacher intends students to make to these cues. Another purpose was to examine how cognitive style and students' ability to perceive instructional cues and cognitive responses jointly relate to students' achievement. Data from 87 students in Grade 6 indicate rhar the two cognitive style measures relate neither to students' percep- tion of instructional cues nor to cognitive responses. However, measures of both perceptions were related to achievement, even after statistically controlling for verbal ability. Results are interpreted in terms of students' perceptions as mediating links between teaching events and students' achievement of curricular objectives. One task commonly required of classroom teachers is to guide the cogni- tive processes used by students as they attempt to learn. In an earlier study (Winne & Marx, 1982), we interviewed teachers in upper elementary school grades and their students to assess the range of intentions these teachers had for their students' cognitive processing and their students' understanding of those intentions. In addition, we asked students if they perceived particular teaching events, which we call instructional cues, as signalling to them that their teacher wanted them to think in particular ways. These teachers reported a variety of intentions for their students' cognitive processing, ranging from simply attend- ing to small elements of a stimulus display to using sophisticated metacognitive operations. Students' understanding of these intentions was related to, among other things, their perception of the instructional event, their state of knowledge, and their prior practice with that particular cognitive operation. In that study, we collected neither achievement data nor individual dif- ference measures. It seems worthwhile to pursue the question of whether stu- dents' perceptions and understandings are related to subsequent learning, as we have speculated elsewhere (Marx, 1983; Winne & Marx, 1977, 1979), and whether individual differences among students might not influence their per- ceptions of instructional stimuli and interpretations of their teacher's intentions for cognitive processing. The purpose of this study was to explore these two questions. 'This study was funded by Grant No. 410-80-0605 from the Social Sciences and Humani- ties Research Council of Canada; however, the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position of the Council, and no endorsement should be inferred. -?Request reprints from Dawn C. Howard, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser Uni- versity, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada V5A 1S6.