Measuring modality preference

Abstract

Advocates of modality preference posit that each individual has a dominant sense, visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, and that when new material is presented in this preferred modality, learning is enhanced. Obviously, applying such an approach in instructional settings is predicated on an accurate assessment of an individual’s preferred modality. Typically educators have used two approaches to ascertain a student’s modality preference, they either simply ask “in which modality do you learn best” or they administer questionnaires such as the Barsch Learning Style Inventory (BLSI). In this study we asked two questions: What are the psychometric properties of the BLSI and is the questionnaire a valid measure of potential learning outcomes. We administered the BLSI and two carefully matched visual and auditory memory tasks to 64 undergraduates. We found that the BLSI did not appear to be a robust measure of modality preference. In addition, visual and auditory preference scores derived from the BLSI did not correlate with the memory tasks. This finding suggests that the BLSI is not a useful instrument to assess modality preference.