MEMORY: Learning Types

“Wait, what was I saying?” Have you ever had one of those moments when you’re talking to someone and forget what you were talking about, or perhaps the name of the person you were talking to? This is an epidemic that affects us all. Have no fear, this blog post is here!

Improving your memory can be a difficult task. The best way to improve your memory is to understand the type of learner you are, or mixture of learning types. There are three major types of learners: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. There are tips for each to improve the way that you learn and remember the information that you learn. I will go over a few of these tips that will benefit your learning type.

Visual learners
These types of people understand things best by seeing and perceiving the information. Visual learners can benefit from observing demonstrations and videos, which helps them to imagine the course material. Visual learners can increase their memory by rewriting notes, referencing pictures, and creating maps and charts.

Auditory learners
Auditory learners remember things best through listening and hearing information. The number one rule for all you auditory students. DON’T SKIP CLASS. Hearing someone else, or yourself, recite the information helps you to internalize all the information. Group discussions can benefit these types of learners, as well as taping a lecture to review and listen to them over and over again. 

Kinesthetic learners

Being physically involved with a learning process is the most beneficial for these learners. There are not as many kinesthetic learners comparing to the others, so learning strategies aren’t often available in the class setting. These types of learners learn the best by actually doing it. Kinesthetic learners remember movement, touch, space, experimenting, role playing, and demonstration. Finding these types of opportunities can be difficult, but will greatly increase the way you remember the material.

These are just a few of the many different strategies to help improve your memory. Most people aren’t exclusively one type or another, so varying the way you study and the format of your study can help you identify what things help you the most.

Learning what type of learner you are is the first foundational step in learning more of the memory techniques. Apply the techniques in different ways to fit your learning style. Look forward to more posts in the future about more memory techniques.