Recording One
Have you ever had someone try to explain something to you a dozen times with no luck—but then, when you see a picture, the idea finally clicks? If that sounds familiar, maybe you might consider yourself a visual learner. Or, if reading or listening does the trick, maybe you feel like you’re a verbal learner.
We call these labels learning styles, but is there really a way to categorize different types of students? Well, it actually seems that multiple presentation formats, especially if one of them is visual, help most people learn.
[16] When psychologists and educators test for learning styles, they’re trying to figure out whether these are inherent traits that affect how well students learn, instead of just a preference. Usually, they start by giving a survey to figure out what style a student favors, like visual or verbal learning. Then, they try to teach the students something with a specific presentation style, like using visual aids, and do a follow-up test to see how much they learned. That way, the researchers can see if the self-identified verbal learners really learned better when the information was just spoken aloud, for example.
But, according to a 2008 review, only one study that followed this design found that students actually learned best with their preferred style. [17] But the study had some big flaws. The researchers excluded two thirds of the original participants because they didn’t seem to have any clear learning style from the survey at the beginning, and they didn’t even report the actual test scores in the final paper. So... it doesn’t really seem like learning styles are an inherent trait that we all have. But, that doesn’t mean that all students will do amazingly if they just spend all their time reading from a textbook.
Instead, most people seem to learn better if they’re taught in several ways, especially if one is visual. In one study, researchers tested whether students remembered lists of words better if they heard them, saw them, or both. And everyone seemed to do better if they got to see the words in print, even the self-identified auditory learners. Their preference didn’t seem to matter.
Similar studies tested whether students learned basic physics and chemistry concepts better by reading plain text or viewing pictures, too. [18] And everyone did better with the help of pictures.
16. Why do psychologists and educators study learning styles?
【试题答案】B
【试题解析】题目问为什么心理学家和教育家要研究学习方式？录音提到，当心理学家和教育学家为学习方式做测试时，他们试图弄清楚这些是否是影响学生学习效果的固有特征，因此B选项“看它们是否是影响学习的固有特征”符合录音原文表述。A选项“了解人类大脑的机制”和D选项“找出学生更喜欢学什么”在录音中均没有信息提及；C选项“对不同类型的学习者进行分类”，利用录音的categorize different types of students设干扰，录音中只是质疑是否真的有办法把不同类型的学生分类，这并不是心理学家和教育家研究学习方式的原因，因此C选项不正确。
17. What does the speaker say about one study mentioned in the 2008 review?
【试题答案】C
【试题解析】题目问说话者对2008年评论中提到的一项研究有何看法？录音提到，这项研究存在一些重大缺陷，因此C选项“它是有缺陷的”正确。A选项“它在设计上是原创的”，利用录音的original设干扰，录音只是提到研究人员排除了三分之二的最初参与者，并未提到设计上的事，因此A选项不正确；B选项“它是发人深省的”和D选项“它被误导了”在录音中没有信息提及。
18. What message does the speaker want to convey about learning at the end of talk?
【试题答案】D
【试题解析】题目问在谈话的最后，说话者想传达关于学习的什么信息？录音最后提到，类似的研究测试了学生通过阅读纯文本或观看图片是否能更好地学习基本的物理和化学概念，所有人在图片的帮助下都做得更好。由此可知，D选项“视觉上的辅助对所有类型的学习者都有用”符合录音原文表述。A选项“阅读纯文本比看图片更有效”与录音最后提到的实验结果恰好相反，因此错误；B选项“没有视觉辅助，科学概念很难理解”，录音中未提及理解科学概念的难度，因此B选项属于无中生有的错误选项；C选项“听觉辅助和视觉辅助一样重要”，录音提到一项研究测试学生在听、看和听看并用的情况下记单词的效果。结果发现，所有学生在“看”单词时，记单词的效果最好，即使自认为偏好用“听”来学习的学生也是这样。由此可见，“看”应该比“听”效果更好，因此排除C选项。
