One Learning Style to Rule Them All

I've been thinking about learning styles at lot lately (a sure indicator that work is piling up and relevant mental functions are shutting down X/). It's been a recurring wool-gathering topic of mine for nearly four years - but only recently have the outlines really begun to sharpen. The conclusion (for now) is that visual-spatial learners, global learners, holistic learners, INTPs, ADDs, what-have-you all touch on three basic functions that mark my primary learning style. I use "learning style" not "thinking pattern" because it doesn't necessarily manifest itself in mundane situations, more in larger scale operations where linear methods get unwieldy. The three functions are as follows:

1. Perceiving information, fuelled by innate curiosity. This means taking in (through reading for example) as much information as one can handle. Cast the net wide and far, and if something fascinating turns up, pursue it to the end of the world. The focus here is not on understanding or even retaining details of the material, but rather on translating it into a single internal language (abstract spatial forms in my case).

2. Processing aforementioned information, subconsciously. Yes this sounds bizarre but it's the best summary I could muster. Basically you take the gathered information and ruminate over it, not too methodically, just turning the facts over and over in your head. You place a lot of trust in the subconscious mind here, like how you can't be sure a calculator really knows how to square but presume it does anyway.

3. Presenting the results. When the subconscious processing has reached a critical level, patterns and connections start to surface and get harvested by the conscious mind, who translates them into the utility language, and subsequently stores it up and/or sends it out via the external language. Only at this stage do you actually establish an understanding of the material, which is two steps too late compared to the normal, linear learning style.

(Come to think of it, this is exactly how I write poetry)

It's a bit like making a stew really. You chop up vegetables and meat, dump the whole lot in a pot, and apply heat. The end result looks nothing like the original components, but is every bit the sum of them. (Can you tell what cut of beef they used just by looking at that brown lump of goodness? I bet not.)

The good news: the end product is usually of more value than the individual parts combined. The bad news: you've no idea how you reached such conclusions, and in academia that spells TROUBLE. Maybe it was brought about by paper A? Book B? Wikipedia article C? Or was it that chat you had with Uncle Tom when you were six?

For me right now though, that's not the main concern. What I'm direly in need of at the moment is more input through reading (the Perceiving part). This is so ironic I could weep, since for 12 long years it was my sole mission to preserve and hone both my curiosity and ability to absorb information. Do forgive me, I was unassisted and clueless back then.

As I was saying, the reasoning (read vicious cycle) goes as such:

Read paper → not very interesting → might get insight once I read more → consult reading list → list super long → daunted → read on anyway → (lather rinse repeat several times) → still can't see where it's going → nagging feeling of guilt → unable to concentrate → read on anyway → (lather rinse repeat several times) → get stressed out → depression sets in → bugger all this for a lark, I'm going to bed for the sake of my sanity.

Did I mention that my mind operates on cosmological time scales? This has become a very serious problem because I'm hopelessly dependant on this particular mode of learning (proof: scored 12/12 for "Global Learner" on a quiz by the University of York) and that my sense of time is practically nonexistent compared to my sense of space. University does not allow enough time for me to ruminate properly. When you haven't even formed any opinions of your own, how do you set about presenting them in an essay?

Epic fail.

Does this mean I'm doomed? Probably. A good friend of mine recently said that my nemesis is structured learning, and that the doctorate environment would be my element. (I cannot thank her enough for that foresight - if anything, it has warded off feelings of worthlessness.) The tragic gut-wrenching part is actually getting to that stage. School has never been kind to me, yet I knew all along that my potential belongs somewhere deep within that intimidating bureaucracy. I knew it at the age of five, curled up with a bowl of congee in front of the TV, being mesmerised by a lecture on seismology.

So all is not lost. Not yet.



Glossary:
Internal language - the way in which the subconscious mind stores and organises thoughts; apparent in dreams as the dominating sensory function (eg sight, hearing etc).
Utility language - the way in which the conscious mind stores and organises thoughts. Mnemonic devices can be classified as such. This can vary quite a lot according to context, for example you can use the phrase "Every Green Bus Drives Fast" (EGBDF) to remember notes on treble clef lines, but can also use that note with the a dash through the middle (middle C) as a reference to figure out what the others are.
External language - the way in which you communicate your thoughts with others, ie as in what we normally mean by "language".


Disclaimer: I'm no psychologist, nor indeed anyone remotely qualified to elaborate on such matters. This is just a model I've come up with to explain my individual case. All terms, ideas and examples devised by the author.