Learning Style tests

The learning styles model starts from an intuitive observation, widely held in education: not everyone processes and retains information the same way. Some people remember what they see best, others what they hear, others what they read and write, and others what they practice with their hands. The most cited formulation is the VARK model, proposed in 1987 by New Zealand educator Neil Fleming.

The model describes four styles:

• Visual: learning through images, charts, and diagrams.
• Auditory: learning by listening to explanations and conversations.
• Reading/writing: learning by reading and taking notes.
• Kinesthetic: learning by doing and physically practicing.

Most people combine several styles, with one or two dominating depending on context.

Does matching teaching to a preferred style actually work?

It's worth flagging that the scientific evidence on whether tailoring instruction to a person's "preferred style" actually improves learning is limited and contested: a widely cited review by Pashler and colleagues (2008) found no solid empirical support for this idea, known as the "meshing hypothesis." The model's main value is self-knowledge: understanding how you prefer to study or retain information can help you pick better study strategies, regardless of whether matching teaching to that style improves outcomes or not.

The sensory channel this quiz measures isn't the only possible angle: there are also models centered on the process of learning rather than the information's input channel. The most cited is American psychologist David Kolb's experiential learning model (1984), which frames learning as a four-stage cycle: living through a concrete experience, reflecting on it, drawing a general idea from that reflection, and actively testing that idea. Four styles (converging, diverging, assimilating, and accommodating) follow from that cycle depending on which stage dominates for each person.

In the 1980s, British trainers Peter Honey and Alan Mumford adapted that same cycle into more practical, workplace-friendly language, with four equivalent styles: activist, reflector, theorist, and pragmatist. This process-based approach and VARK's sensory approach aren't competitors, since they answer different questions: a recent academic review (Roque Herrera et al., 2023) concludes that combining both gives a fuller picture than picking just one.

A 2024 study of 25 Ecuadorian teachers (Arellano et al.) goes further and directly questions the practical usefulness of the VAK model, proposing to talk about flexible "information channels" instead of fixed categories: a person would draw on different channels depending on the task, not rely on a single stable one. Our test is a popular-science, informational take: it doesn't replace guidance from an education professional.

Deeper models: environment, brain, and personality

There's a third, deeper layer of models beyond sensory channel or process stage: ones that look at what shapes how a person learns, from environment all the way to personality. American psychologist Rita Dunn proposed the "onion model" in 1983, which organizes these factors in layers: an outer, more changeable layer (environmental and instructional preferences), a middle layer (how information gets processed), and a central, more stable layer (personality traits). Sitting in that middle layer is the Ned Herrmann model, which crosses the two brain hemispheres described by Roger Sperry with Paul MacLean's "triune brain" (limbic and cortical) to distinguish four styles of thinking and learning: analytical, sequential, interpersonal, and holistic. And in the deepest layer, tied to personality, sits the Felder-Silverman model (1988), widely used in university-level science and engineering teaching, which describes five independent dimensions (sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, active/reflective, sequential/global, and inductive/deductive) instead of a single closed profile.

How it's measured in the Spanish-speaking world: the CHAEA

In Spain and Latin America, the most widely used questionnaire for measuring the Honey and Mumford model is the CHAEA (Honey-Alonso Learning Styles Questionnaire), a 1992 adaptation by educator Catalina Alonso. A study of 161 engineering students (Alducin-Ochoa & Vázquez-Martínez, 2017) found a relationship between a student's dominant CHAEA style and variables like academic performance, though the authors themselves stress that the goal isn't to label the student, but to give them useful data about how they study.

Sources

• Fleming, N. D., & Mills, C. (1992). Not another inventory, rather a catalyst for reflection. To Improve the Academy.
• Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest.
• Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Prentice-Hall.
• Honey, P., & Mumford, A. (1986). The Manual of Learning Styles.
• Roque Herrera, Y., Tenelanda Lopez, D. V., Basantes Moscoso, D. R., & Erazo Parra, J. L. (2023). Theories and models on learning styles from a holistic view. EDUMECENTRO.
• Arellano Gualle, P. C., Saldaña Sigcha, M. J., Azuero Granda, Á. B., Zavala Verdezoto, J. A., & Zavala Camargo, P. L. (2024). Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic learning styles: myth or reality? Reincisol, 3(6).
• Escanero Marcén, J. F. (dir.) (2008). Learning Styles (Medical Schools). Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza.
• Alducin-Ochoa, J. M., & Vázquez-Martínez, A. I. (2017). CHAEA learning styles in university engineering students. Revista de Estilos de Aprendizaje.