Styles of Learning

Introduction: There are many different styles of learning, but only three of these styles are most commonly used in school settings; auditory, visual, and a combination of the two. Auditory learners are typically good listeners who are able to pick things up when they hear them and benefit from hearing lectures, brainstorming, and participating in discussions. They are great at listening and picking up on the tone/inflection in which things are said, hearing what others simply may not. Many times, these are participants who talk through projects with you and desire verbal input. They think best outloud and can typically follow oral directions. Written information may have little appeal to them, so they may read it outloud to digest it fully (Weichel, 2016). Visual learners have a keen eye and are taking it all in. Observation and note-taking are their strengths; however, those notes may be in pictures, diagrams, or words, depending on their preferences. They may position themselves in the room so they can focus and avoid distractions. They benefit from visualization exercises, watching videos, written instructions, maps, diagrams, silent reading, and flowcharts. Many enjoy reading and are able to process the words and recall what they have seen (Weichel, 2016). Short-term memory is the second stage of the multi-store memory model proposed by the Atkinson-Shiffrin (McLeod, 2009). It acts as a kind of â€Å"scratch-pad† for temporary recall of the information which is being processed at any point in time (Mastin, 2018). Short-term memory has three key-aspects; limited capacity, limited duration, and encoding. For limited capacity, only about seven items can be stored at a time. The magic number seven (plus or minus two) provides evidence for the capacity of short term memory. Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory. This idea was put forward by Miller (1956) and he called it ‘the magic number seven'. He thought that short term memory could hold seven (plus or minus two) items because it had only a certain number of â€Å"slots† in which those items could be stored. However, Miller didn't specify the amount of information that can be held in each slot. Also, if we can â€Å"chunk† information together we can store a lot more information in our short-term memory (McLeod, 2009). For limited duration, storage is very fragile and information can be lost with distraction or passage of time. It is usually assumed that the short-term memory spontaneously decays over time, typically in the region of ten to fifteen seconds, but items may be retained for up to a minute, depending on the content (Mastin, 2018). Items can be kept in short-term memory by repeating them verbally (acoustic encoding), a process known as rehearsal. Peterson and Peterson (1959) showed that the longer the delay, the less information is recalled. The rapid loss of information from memory when rehearsal is prevented is taken as an indication of short-term memory having a limited duration (McLeod, 2009). When several elements (such as digits, words, or pictures) are held in short-term memory simultaneously, they effectively compete with each other for recall. New content, therefore, gradually pushes out older content (known as displacement), unless the older content is actively protected against interference by rehearsal or by directing attention to it. Any outside interference tends to cause disturbances in short-term memory retention, and for this reason people often feel a distinct desire to complete the tasks held in short-term memory as soon as possible. When something in short-term memory is forgotten, it means that a nerve impulse has merely ceased being transmitted through a particular neural network. In general, unless an impulse is reactivated, it stops flowing through a network after just a few seconds (Mastin, 2018). The type or characteristics of the information also affects the number of items which can be retained in short-term memory. For instance, more words can be recalled if they are shorter or more commonly used words, or if they are phonologically similar in sound, or if they are taken from a single semantic category (such as sports, for example) rather than from different categories. There is also some evidence that short-term memory capacity and duration is increased if the words or digits are articulated aloud instead of being read subvocally, in the head (Mastin, 2018). Some researchers (e.g. Eugen Tarnow) have proposed that there is no real distinction between short-term and long-term memory at all, and certainly it is difficult to demarcate a clear boundary between them. However, the evidence of patients with some kinds of anterograde amnesia, and experiments on the way distraction affect the short-term recall of lists, suggest that there are in fact two more or less separate systems (Mastin, 2018). Gender and hormones influence how the human brain develops. Recognizing some of the differences between the male and female brain can help to understand why males and females often have different learning styles and behavioral patterns. The female brain has a higher proportion of gray matter while the male brain has a higher proportion of white matter. Having more gray matter may explain why young women are usually more efficient in processing information, often have stronger verbal skills, and usually excel at juggling several activities (Male and Female Brains Are Not the Same, 2015). Having more white matter appears to help the male brain transfer information throughout the brain. This can enhance young men's spatial skills, such as navigation and and solving math problems. The differences between males and females is principally hormonal, whereby males have dominant androgens while females have more of estrogens than androgens (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). Researchers have argued that the difference in these sex hormones is what differentiates memory in humans based on gender. Generally, boys have superior scholastic ability when compared to girls. In terms of academics, boys technically have superior memory. However, girls and females technically have superior short term memory on various issues (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). The purpose of this experiment was to determine which of the most common learning modes used in school, auditory learning, visual learning, or a combination of the two modes, was most effective for information retention among males and females. This experiment explores how many words twenty 8-10 year olds can memorize in a short period of time.Results:Procedure:Three tests, a visual test, an auditory test, and a combination test, testing both auditory and visual modes together, were created for twenty 8-10 year olds to be able to read, along with a copy of each test.For the visual test, each 8-10 year old was given a list of 20 words to read over.After reading over the list, the list was taken away, and the child recited how many words he or she remembered.For the auditory test, each 8-10 year old was read another list of 20 words, and then recited how many words he or she remembered. For the combination test, each 8-10 year old was given a list of 20 words to look at while the same words were read to them.All three tests were given to each 8-10 year old, and the order in which the test were administered and which lists of words that were used were changed each time to avoid test, test-practice, or test-fatigue bias.After each test was given, the scores were recorded and averaged, along with separating the males from the females. Tests are located in â€Å"Appendix A†, â€Å"Appendix B†, and â€Å"Appendix C†.Data: The material collected was from twenty 8-10 year olds, ten being male and ten being female. For the visual test, the ten males scored 3, 5, 5, 5, 8, 7, 5, 9, 4, and 4 out of twenty, and averaged 5.5 words. For the auditory test, the ten males scored 3, 6, 5, 4, 6, 7, 6, 8, 6, and 6 out of twenty, and averaged 5.7 words. For the combination test, the ten males scored 5, 6, 4, 5, 8, 5, 5, 9, 7, and 5 out of twenty, and averaged 5.9 words. For the visual test, the ten females scored 6, 5, 4, 9, 8, 5, 8, 7, 5, and 6 out of twenty, and averaged 6.3 words. For the auditory test, the ten females scored 6, 4, 4, 6, 7, 4, 5, 4, 4, and 4 out of twenty, and averaged 4.8 words. For the combination test, the ten females scored 5, 6, 4, 6, 6, 4, 7, 6, 6, and 4 out of twenty, and averaged 5.4 words. The males averaged 5.7 words per test, and the females averaged 5.5 words per test. Table 1: Boys' Scores on the Visual, Auditory, and Combination Tests (Out of 20)Visual TestAuditory TestCombination Test335566554545868775565989467465Average: 5.5Average: 5.7Average: 5.9Table 2: Girls' Scores on the Visual, Auditory, and Combination Tests (Out of 20)Visual TestAuditory TestCombination Test665546444966876544857746546644Average: 6.3Average: 4.8Average: 5.4Graph 1: Girls' Scores on the Visual Test (Out of 20) Graph 2: Girls' Scores on the Auditory Test (Out of 20)Graph 3: Girls' Scores on the Combination Test (Out of 20)Graph 4: Boys' Scores on the Visual Test (Out of 20)Graph 5: Boys' Scores on the Auditory Test (Out of 20)Graph 6: Boys' Scores on the Combination Test (Out of 20)Graph 7: Boys' Average Scores on All Three Tests (Out of 20)Graph 8: Girls' Average Scores on All Three Tests (Out of 20)Discussion: In this experiment, ten 8-10 year old boys and ten 8-10 year old girls were given three tests, a visual test, an auditory test, and a combination (auditory and visual combined) test, and asked to recite how many words they remembered from each test. The predicted results of the experiment were that the girls would remember more words than the boys because girls generally have a superior short-term memory than boys (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). The results to the experiment proved otherwise; boys averaged a score of 5.7 words overall, and the girls averaged a score of 5.5 words overall. The actual results may have differed from the predicted results because the girls were tested in the hall where many other children were walking in and out of rooms, causing the girls to lose focus on the experiment. They may have not been able to focus on reading the visual test or following along on the combination test. They may have also not been able to hear the auditory test or the combination test as it was read to them. The boys may have experienced less interruptions when being tested, allowing them to obtain higher scores. The words on the lists may have also been more appealing for 8-10 year old boys, than for 8-10 year old girls. Although girls generally have a superior short-term memory compared to boys, this experiment may have proved that boys can have a superior short-term memory compared to girls. Research by many psychologists has shown that the female gender manages to organize their memory in a united style while, on the other hand, the male gender organizes their memory in a truly distinguished style (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). Differences in memory among males and females are diverse based on various situations and circumstances (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). The ten 8-10 year old boys involved in this experiment may have proved that boys have a better short-term memory when given three short tests. Since the boys scored the highest on the combination test, they might also be superior in auditory and visual learning rather than the girls.This experiment tested the short-term memory of both girls and boys when it comes to short lists of words. It proved that boys may sometimes prove superior to girls in certain circumstances, and that boys aren't primarily auditory or visual learners, but the ones experimented on are a combination of the two. Although the female brain matures faster than the male brain, this experiment concluded that girls may not always have a superior short-term memory to boys (Does Gender Affect Memory, 2018). ReferencesDoes Gender Affect Memory Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays – 1000 words. (2018).Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://studentshare.net/psychology/63811-does-gender-affect-memoryMale and Female Brains Are Not the Same. (2015). Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://www.multiplyingconnections.org/become-trauma-informed/male-and-female-brains-are-not-sameMastin, L. (2018).Short Term (Working) Memory. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://www.human-memory.net/types_short.htmlMcLeod, S. (1970, January 01). Saul McLeod. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/short-term-memory.htmlWeichel, J. (2016, August 19).What's their learning style? Part 3: Visual learners. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/whats_their_learning_style_part_3_visual_learners AppendixA Airplanes Balloon Candy Doughnuts Fireworks Glitter Harmonicas Ice cream Jumping Karate Legos Macaroni Nachos Ocean Pirates Rainbows Shark Toys Unic orns WaffleAppendixB Astronaut Bacon Cakes Disney Elephants Fire trucks Gorilla Halloween Insects Jelly bean Kite Lollipops Marshmallow Narwhals Parrot Rabbits Sea horse Texting Volcano WatermelonAppendixC Aquariums Basketball Cheeseburger Dolphin Easter Frogs Ghost Hamsters Ice skating Juggling Ladybugs Magic Naps Pizza Robots Sea turtle Trampoline Whales Zombies Waves