You’re Not A Visual Learner: Learning Styles Don’t Exist.

Let’s lay this piece of psychology folklore to rest

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

“Are you an auditory learner, a visual learner, a reading/writing learner, or a kinesthetic learner?”

It’s a trick question. There’s one correct answer and it’s a nuanced combination of all of the above. And it depends on what you’re learning.

You don’t have a “learning style” because they don’t exist.

There’s zero scientific evidence to support the existence of “learning styles”. Don’t buy it? I was surprised when I learned this too, but here’s what numerous research studies have found:

“To date, there has been no evidence that matching or meshing instruction to someone’s self-reported learning style positively affects their ability to learn new information.” — American Psychological Association, 2019

That article cites over 20 studies all amounting to the same conclusion. There’s no evidence learning styles exist, but there is evidence that believing in them can be harmful.

Learning styles are an essentialist belief. If you endorse essentialist beliefs, you think your skills and traits are set at birth and can’t be altered through experience. You think we have some sort of “true nature” that is set at birth…