I just found myself replying to someone on another forum and giving them advice about learning styles, so I thought I would bring it up here.
In these days of sensory and information overload, how does one determine what information to take in and what to leave aside? And how does one actually take in said information? What is one's primary "modality"? Having discovered many years ago that my primary sensory input mechanism is one that only 5% of the population shares, I learned how I learn best, and what media are best for me. And I want to challenge everyone to learn how you learn so you can learn (and lead) better.
There are three dominant "modalities" that we humans use to take in information from our surroundings. They are:
1) Visual
2) Auditory
3) Kinesthetic
Now for those of you who are saying, "Wait a second, Alex, we have five (5) senses but you only listed three. What gives?" you are correct. There are also olfactory and gustatory; smell and taste. But when it comes to sensory input, believe it or not olfactory and gustatory are not considered dominant. Smell and taste are strongly connected to memory, which is why you can smell the aroma of baking cookies and you're immediately transported in your mind back to your Grandma's kitchen when you were five years old. The three dominant modalities - sight, hearing and touch - are how we mainly take in information and learn. I found a great dissertation on the three modalities here and it talks about how to spot visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. Finding out how one learns can greatly improve how one interacts with one's surroundings.
I am a kinesthetic learner, meaning that my primary modality is touch. When I get up in the morning, it's usually dark in the house but I don't turn on a single light, at least not to full brightness. We have a night light in the bathroom and that provides just enough so I can see outlines, but I use my sense of touch to interact with my world. My wife finds it strange, and occasionally she will say, in a dreamy, half-awake voice, "You can turn on the light." to which I reply, "Thank you, sweetie, but I don't need one. Go back to sleep.". I know it may sound odd but I literally "see" with my fingers. Couple that with the fact that I am musician and have developed a keen sense of muscle memory, I can take a shower, shave, dry myself, brush my hair and put on my undergarments all without the need for Edison's brain child. The exception comes when I need to get a shirt and my wife was kind enough to get me a dimmer for the closet light, so I do take advantage of that. So what is the big deal about knowing your primary modality?
Traditional learning is through books; yes, those hard (or soft) bound tomes of papyrus with printed words emblazoned on them. And for the longest time, I never could figure out why I didn't like them. Sure, I read them for academia - and even read a few for fun back in the day - but I don't love to read. Contrast that with my Grandson, who has been an absolutely VORACIOUS reader almost since birth. He is definitely a visual learner and so is 65% of the population. Another 30% are auditory, which means they "hear" things to learn them. And then there's my group, the kinesthetics! We make up only 5% of the population and we like to dig in and get our hands dirty. Finding out not only how you input information but also how others do the same can help you establish relationships and build rapport, which can be invaluable in your career. Once you can spot people's learning styles, you can adjust your interaction to fit their natural groove. I mean think about it: have you ever been in a conversation that felt tense and grating? It's because you were speaking your "modality" language and the other person was speaking theirs, and if the two are incompatible it can break rapport and cause tension. And what is it that causes us to pay more attention to certain things over others, whether in interaction or everyday life in general? Yes, it's your RAS...
No, it's not Remote Access Services, as I alluded to in the heading, it's your Reticular Activating System or RAS. Your RAS is that mechanism in your brain that allows you to only see red Volkswagen Beetles (and now you will!) simply because you now own one. Considering that our conscious mind can only take in a few bits of information at once*, while our subconscious or other-than-conscious mind can input over 10 million bits at once, there needs to be something that filters out what our conscious mind sees lest we go into literal "information overload". Enter the RAS. The RAS is the sieve through which only pertinent information passes, and also causes you to "attract" people, places, things, events, and data that you are specifically looking for. If you "decide" what you want, you can cause physiological change in yourself that will engage your RAS to bring you the things that will help you get what you want, as well as filter out things that will derail you. I recall a personal experience with this when I went for my MCSE many years ago.
I had decided to obtain my MCSE certification during the summer of 1997, and wanted to get it before my birthday that year, which was September 21st. So I went online (dial-up was brutal back in those days!) and researched everything I could on getting the certification. I downloaded and printed tons of articles, questions, answers, hints, etc. and dove into self-studying. Oh, by the way: in addition to studying for 5-6 hours a day, my fianceé (now wife of over 21 years) and I were planning a wedding AND a trip to Minnesota that August to visit her family. So what did I do? I took a laptop (more a luggable back then, but it did the job) with me and studied at the family's lake house for several hours a day. I took practice tests and soaked up as much knowledge as I could. I did my best to not tune out my fianceé but years later, in talking with her, she says that I did. But I was focused on the goal. In the end, I did get the MCSE, just not by the 21st. I had a setback and I had to retake one of the tests. And I got married on November 1st of that year and have been happily so ever since.
So in closing, I encourage all of you to discover how you learn best and begin using that modality to become better leaders and contributors. And discover (or re-discover) how to engage your RAS so that you can focus on what you want, and filter out what you don't. I wish you all much success in your careers of learning and contributing!
*=Information theory - Physiology | Britannica.com
