Learning new information is something most people do each day, but may not even notice. Daily learning includes information from news, work, family, and recreation. I find it much easier to learn something I am truly interest about. For me, that would be almost anything associated with the automobile industry. The auto companies, their products, and even how people react to their products fascinate me. Almost everything I learn about the auto industry is retained without trying. I remember facts from 20 years ago I read just once, but sometimes can't remember what I ate for dinner the day before! My personal learning style depends on what I am trying to learn. In the following paragraphs I will discuss my personal learning style, assess my strengths and opportunities for growth, and create an improvement strategy based on this assessment.
As stated above, my personal learning style is a function of what I am trying to learn. If it is something that truly fascinates me I can learn by seeing or hearing it once. Unfortunately for me, once I roam outside this fascination zone learning becomes difficult. For discussion purposes the term "topic" will represent something to learn. I subconsciously place the topic in the no interest or interest category. The no interest category is something that I must learn that I really have no interest in at the time. The interest category represents some that I want to learn and have an interest in. These categories have a few degrees of freedom. Examples of no interest topics are religion, sports, and trivia. Examples of interest topics include automobiles, electronics, managing people, and computers. .
If the topic is in the no interest category it is very difficult for me to learn about it. For short-term memory I can study no interest material by reading and taking notes, but often it does not seem to commit to long-term memory. On the other hand, interesting topics seems much easier to commit to long-term memory.