By: Maddie Marston What kind of learner do you think you are: visual or auditory? The truth is, it does NOT matter! Studies have found that there is no true evidence that points to the existence of learning styles. Most of the time you are just tricking yourself into thinking that one learning style is better for you by trying to learn in accordance to what you believe is your learning style. Three studies done by psychologists all point to the fact that learning styles do not exist, and there is no learning style that is better than another. Joshua Cuevas and Bryan L. Dawson (2017) tested learning styles in a survey study of 204 university students. This survey consisted of questions like, “Do you spell an unfamiliar word by sounding it out or visualizing the letters?”, or “Do you give directions in words or by drawing a map?” They also read statements and asked the participants if they created an image in their head or listened to sound and pronunciation. You would expect that visual learners would focus on creating an image in their head while auditory learners would listen to the pronunciation. However, it turned out to be opposite; visual learners focused on sound while auditory learners created an image of the statement. The next study done (Massa & Mayer, 2006) tested the participants ability to learn new tasks through one’s preferred learning style: a diagram or written instruction. People who thought that they were visual learners chose to study the diagram, and people who thought they were verbalizers chose to read. The outcome turned out that neither of the groups learned the task any faster than another, therefore people just try to learn in accordance to what they think their learning style is. The last study (Kraemer, Rosenberg & Thompson-Schill 2009) looks into the brain activity. The participants consisted of eighteen right-handed people (11 are women). They were given either a picture such as a striped triangle, or words such as “orange”, “circle”, “dots.” Then, the participants had to match the next item that popped up with the one before. When a visual learners saw words, they were transforming the words into a picture, therefore the visual part of the brain was active. The opposite occurred for when verbal learners saw a picture they were translating it into words, therefore their verbal parts of the brain were active. This study shows how people mentally try and change their thinking to match it with what they believe is their learning style. These studies show us that there are no learning styles that we are constrained to because we are able to adapt to anything. Inevitably, sometimes learning styles can hurt us because they are just not fit for a certain task. For instance, problems involving creativity is better fit with intuitive thinking while problems involving probability calculations is better fit with reflective thinking. There is no way that on a statistics test a intuitive learner who uses creativity would ace the test because reflective thinking works more with problems involving with calculations. Learning styles do not actually exist because there is no good evidence. Therefore, you must transform your thinking to meet the task you are trying to complete rather than trying to change your thinking style. Anyone can use any type of learning because they are all accessible by our brains to perform certain tasks. Willingham, D. T. (2018, October 04). Are You a Visual or an Auditory Learner? It Doesn't Matter. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/opinion/sunday/visual-learner-auditory-school-education.html?rref=collection/timestopic/Psychology and Psychologists&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=16&pgtype=collection
3 Comments
Caroline Chittum
12/13/2018 02:53:28 pm
This is something that I have been curious about for a long time! Thank you for writing this and teaching us more about these widely misunderstood labels about learning styles. I always thought that I was a visual learner. Maybe because I love to draw and I naturally translate notes into visuals that help me remember key concepts. But I also learn a lot by talking with my peers through group discussions. So this means that I am an auditory learner now? Apparently, these are all fragments of my imagination that society has pushed me to believe in. People learn different subjects in a variety of different ways. Also, people may need visuals for one subject and a different method for another. These three studies clearly show that there is no correlation between "learning styles" and comprehension. I believe that this information is important for both teachers and students to understand because it allows both to have a more open mind about varying different methods of learning in the classroom and beyond.
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Jack Vigue
12/15/2018 07:36:05 am
I was interested in this blog post. For a long time, teachers would always ask what kind of learner I was; a visual or auditory learner. I would usually say auditory just to give them an answer. To be honest, I would use both! While reading this article, I was intrigued to find that learning styles don't matter and that they are just labels to put on students. As you stated that learning styles differ for certain tasks, I could relate to that because I have different learning styles for different subjects. This is why I was never a full believer in subjecting a certain learning style onto students. This blog post was very informational and well written; I think that more people should know that what kind of learner someone is doesn't matter. Both students and teachers should try and focus on having different learning styles for different tasks and subjects.
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Puja Patel
12/16/2018 02:46:10 pm
This is really interesting because it is something that people always ask you. For a while now I have said that I am a visual learner, believing that watching a video that explained something would help me remember something better than if I just read it from a book. I am now realizing, like you said, that you can use both and that you change things to fit what you think is “right”. Knowing this information will change the way that I learn new things from here on out. This was very well written and is showing people that think a teacher does not fit their learning style that you need to adjust to your task and not blame other things. Adjusting is the things that will make a difference.
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