Correlates of Individual Learning Styles. Final Report.

The purpose of this study is to determine categories of learning styles based on research on the chemical and physiological correlates of learning, as well as the development of simple measures that would allow an investigator to place a subject within one or more of these categories. The data from eight experiments with rats suggests that there are reliable differences: (1) between the rates at which male and female rats acquire a barpress response; and (2) between the rates at which hooded and albino rats acquire the same response. The present data is explainable in terms of general activity level: (1) animals with a high activity level appear to learn rapidly and do not benefit from interpolated rest periods; and (2) animals with low activity levels appear to learn more slowly but benefit from interpolated rest periods. It is possible that activity level constitutes one of the broad descriptive categories of individuals learning styles. (Author/EK)