curious learning question: do you read or listen?

[gossipism]

i asked this on another forum, and would be curious to hear you answers



if you had time for either, would you read a book, or listen to it?

whatever the answer, do you think you that is correlates to your ability to remember the content?

think of it like this.

if i gave you lyrics to a song youve never heard before, would you remember them as opposed to listening to the song? i know the music itself plays a big factor but dont you ever get surprised that you can remember lyrics to a song you loathe purely from hearing it on the radio over and over again (even when youre not listening to it!)

me personally? i remember better when i listen to things. thats why even though i drive for hours every day, i learn a metric tonne through podcasts and ebooks.

what about you?

[bluepenguin]

I have to read.

If I try listening to anything, I'll make it to about 20 seconds in before my mind and/or eyes have drifted to something else.

If I read, my eyes, mind, hands, etc. are all occupied and my attention span will last at least until something captures my sense of hearing.

My grade 6 teacher told me I had the attention span of a flea. No lie.

[GailH]

I'm a reader too. For sure I retain a lot more info for things I've read rather than just listened to. In fact, when my only option is to listen, I usually write lots and lots of notes so I can re-read them later.

As far as just listening goes, mondegreens have taught us that when we just listen to a song, we don't necessarily learn the correct lyrics.

http://www.uh.edu/~mbarber/mondegreens.html

[Sandy Naidu]

I prefer listening...I am usually listening to some or the other podcast when I am working...

[The Copy Chick]

I have to read.

One of the things I prefer over podcasts or videos is the ability to easily skim, rescan, and re-read passages, without having to "rewind", as such.

It's easy to skim over a page first to get a general sense of the content before reading more thoroughly - but with a CD or podcast, you generally have to listen from start to finish then try to find the right spot if you want go back to a particular point. Very frustrating in my mind.

[tonyk]

I prefer to read a book rather than listen to one as I feel more connected to it that way. Same reason why I write in pen first before typing out anything I would be working on.

[FS Concierge]

Originally Posted by GailH

mondegreens have taught us that when we just listen to a song, we don't necessarily learn the correct lyrics.

http://www.uh.edu/~mbarber/mondegreens.html

Thanks for the mondegreens link GailH - that's just cleared up a few longheld lyric mysteries for me! And it's very funny too!

Cheers,
Jayne

[James8]

I like to skim. If topic is of practical use - ie learning photoshop, then I would prefer doing, then flicking back and forth with the books.

[J.B. Writing Solutions]

Out of those two options, definitely reading.

But overall I learn best from writing out the thing needed to be learnt.
That way my mind is focused on every word for at least as long as it takes to write it out - not even typing seems to solidify something in my mind as well.
I'm definitely a "learn by doing" sort of person, and working this way I learn incredibly quickly. Listening and watching, the more passive learning techniques, seem to have no way near the same sticking power in my mind.

[DavidM]

Another vote for reading, mainly because of the propensity for people to waffle on. I also looking at the end first - as that helps me better get the jist of the
new material when I'm ploughing through it the first time.

I do however use the program myspeed to speed up how fast people talk in recordings (without noticable pitch changes). This is particularly good when listening to online video sources such as YouTube. I find I can listen to the same content twice as fast without losing anything they are saving.

Great time saver - although it's not free. I think it's $99. But when you use it you become hooked. So much time saved. Love it.