The purpose of this study was to examine young Children's tendencies to be task or socially oriented in an experimental situation. On the basis of past research, two independent variables were chosen: field dependence-independence and sex. It was expected that field-dependent subjects and girls would tend to be more socially oriented, while field-independent subjects and boys would tend to be more task oriented. The results from the two experimental tasks used generally failed to confirm this hypothesis. There were no significant differences in amount of imitation on the first task; and, on the second task, only the boys tended to utilize the social cue that could facilitate their performance on the second part of the task. However, field-dependent subjects did glance more at the experimenter and were more verbally dependent, in accord with the general prediction. With regard to these last results, the possibility that social orientation may sometimes serve as a task-avoidant strategy is discussed. (Author)