A Relative History of
My Learning Styles AND Cognitive Abilities

My Background

Although it has been nearly thirty years since my "recovery," I am still occasionally frustrated by haunting remnants of these "restrictions." When I am tired it becomes more difficult to remember or associate names with ideas, places, or people; I become more divergent in my thought process, as well as impatient with or easily distracted by visual disorder. It's not that the knowledge is absent, there just seems to be a temporarily slight disconnect.

Below I have listed my assessment and inventory results, these include: the l learning compensation strategies I needed to adopt; the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale -R; the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator; the Gregorc Style Delineator; the Oltman, Raskin and Witkin's Embedded Figures Test; and, the Swassing/Barbe Modality Index.

Learning Compensation Strategies*

Strategy

Components

Study and Performance Strategies

  • Note taking
  • Test-taking preparation
  • Time management
  • Monitoring daily, weekly, and monthly assignments and activities
  • Using weekly and monthly organizers, chunking assignments into workable parts
  • Written expression
  • Reading
  • Mathematical processing

    • Cognitive/Learning Strategies

  • Memory strategies such as mnemonics, rehearsal, association and visualization
  • Chunking information into smaller units for mastery

    • Compensation Supports

  • Use of computers & word processing

    • *These were adopted in part from "Whitmore, J. (1980). Giftedness, conflict, and underachievement. Boston: Allyn and Bacon."

    Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R)*

  • verbal IQ = 120
  • performance IQ = 139
  • full-scale IQ = 133

    • *This exam was taken in 1982, since then there have been significant changes and reversions of the WAIS, including the creation of the WAIS-R IN (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised as a Neuropsychological Instrument), which may have been more appropriate considering my condition.

     

    Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

    On the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator I was type cast as an
    INTJ - "Introversion, iNtuition Thinking, Judging".

    The characteristics frequently associated with INTJ are:

    "Usually have original minds and great drive for their own ideas and purposes. In fields that appeal to them, they have a fine power to organize a job and carry it through with or without help. Skeptical, critical, independent, determined, sometimes stubborn. Must learn to yield less important points to win the most important."
    -Description from Form G Self-Scorable (Revised)

     

    Gregorc Style Delineator

    On the Gregorc Style Delineator I was type cast as
    Concrete Random (CR) Dominant

    The characteristics frequently associated with CR are:

    Dominant CR learners are able to:
    • Use insight to skip details and find the big picture
    • Use intuition to uncover lies and deception
    • Stand independently of others thoughts, work and deed
    • To risk being different
    • Create new ideas, approaches and products
    • Conform to established rules and procedures if they are personally acceptable
    • Function well in unstructured, open-ended activities
    • Thrive in conditions that offer choice, chance, challenge and change
    		Dominant CR learners dislike:
    • Prescribed, step-by-step cookbook procedures
    • Communal teamwork
    • Details, routine procedures, politically-correct activities, and plans that lack excitement
    • Being reprimanded by people they consider to be incompetent, hypocritical or stuck-in-their ways
    • Having their intuitive flashes and insights demeaned
    Dominant CR learners expect:
    • Concrete examples and abstract ideas to help launch unconventional thoughts and products
    • Open minded teachers who serve both as knowledgeable instructors and guides for their independent work
    • Established basic requirements and provisions for freedom to experiment beyond them
    • Activities that promote and reward their curiosity, inventiveness, competitiveness and need to explore
    • Stimulus-rich environments that include interesting people and multiple resources available on-call
    		Dominant CR learners fear:
    • Being mediocre, average, and unnoticed; Being unable to shine; Losing in competition
    • Being trapped by fixed routines that restrict freedom
    • Being involved in meaningless activities
    • Being governed by restrictive and controlling individuals and group
    Dominant CR learners want:
    • Recognition, appreciation, respect and accolades
    • Ethical, just, genuine, flexible and tolerant teachers
    • Activities that fit their ways of dealing with the ever-changing world that they experience
    		Dominant CR learners prefer the following media:
    • Mini-lectures
    • Discussions
    • Games
    • Simulations
    • Independent study
    Adapted from: http://www.smuhsd.k12.ca.us/chs/instructionaltoolkit/learning_styles/learning_modalitiesgregorc_mind_styles2.html

     

    Oltman, Raskin and Witkin's Embedded Figures Test (EFT)

    On the Oltman, Raskin and Witkin's Embedded Figures Test (EFT) I was type cast as
    Field Independent (FI)

    The characteristics frequently associated with FI are:

    • Analytical
    • Generates structure
    • Internally directed
    • Inattentive to social cues
    • Philosophical
    • Cognitive
    • Individualistic
    • Distant in social relations
    • Intrapersonal
    • Reserved
    • Aloof
    • Experimental
    • Generates own hypotheses
    • Conceptually oriented
    • Acquires information to fit conceptual scheme
    • Represents concepts through analysis
    • Less affected by format/structure
    • Impersonal orientation
    • Insensitive to social undercurrents
    • Ignores external stress

     

    Swassing/Barbe Modality Index(SBMI)

    On the Swassing/Barbe Modality Index (SBMI) I was type cast with
    Visual Modality (VM) as my greatest differential

    The characteristics frequently associated with VM are:

    LEARNING STYLES Learns by seeing; watching demonstrations
    READING Likes description; sometimes stops reading to stare into space and imagine scene; intense concentration
    SPELLING Recognizes words by sight; relies on configuration of words
    HANDWRITING Tends to be good, particularly when young; spacing and size are good; appearance is important
    MEMORY Remembers faces, forgets names; writes things down, takes notes
    IMAGERY Vivid imagination; thinks in pictures, visualizes in detail
    DISTRACTIBILITY Generally unaware of sounds; distracted by visual disorder or movement
    PROBLEM SOLVING Deliberate; plans in advance; organizes thoughts by writing them; lists problems
    RESPONSE TO PERIODS OF INACTIVITY Stares; doodles; finds something to watch
    RESPONSE TO NEW SITUATIONS Looks around; examines structure
    EMOTIONALITY Somewhat repressed; stares when angry; cries easily, beams when happy; facial expression is a good index of emotion
    COMMUNICATION Quiet; does not talk at length; becomes impatient when extensive listening is required; may use words clumsily; describes without embellishment; uses words such as see, look, etc.
    GENERAL APPEARANCE Neat, meticulous, likes order; may choose not to vary appearance
    RESPONSE TO THE ARTS Not particularly responsive to music; prefers the visual arts; tends not to voice appreciation of art of any kind, but can be deeply affected by visual displays; focuses on details and components rather than the work as a whole
    Used with permission of Zaner-Bloser, Inc.

     


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