Eighty high school students enrolled in social studies classrooms participated in a study exploring the hypothesis that field dependence-independence is a perceptual dimension of cognitive style influencing text structure variables and the quality of free recall. Based on results of a test of field dependence/independence, 10 subjects served in each cell of a three-way factorial design. The factors were whether the subject's cognitive style was identified as field dependent or independent; whether the top-level structure of the target selection was organized as comparison-contrast or cause-effect; and whether the target selection contained inserted signals. Subjects were directed to read the target selections without making notes or marking the text to recall information for later rewriting, to take as much time as they needed to read, and to take the recall test when ready. Results indicated that (1) top-level structure and presence of signaling influenced readers' recall of text when the total amount of idea units was used as the sole dependent measure; (2) comparison-contrast top-level structure facilitated performance on each type of proposition for both field dependent and independent learners; and (3) cause-effect top-level structure, whether with or without signals, posed greater barriers for good readers' literal recall than did any other single variable. (HOD)