Visual: Learning with maps, graphs, diagrams, and flowcharts
Aural: Listening to recorded lectures, taking notes verbally, and participating in video discussions
Read: Making lists, reading resources, writing notes, creating a mind map
Kinesthetic: Moving while studying, taking short breaks, printing materials, and highlighting by hand

The Visual preference includes the depiction of information in maps, diagrams, charts, graphs, flow charts, and all the symbolic arrows, circles, hierarchies, and other devices, that people use to represent what could have been presented in words. This mode could have been called Graphic (G), as that would better explain what it covers.

It does not include still pictures or photographs of reality, movies, videos, or PowerPoint presentations. It includes designs, white space, patterns, shapes, and the different formats used to highlight and convey information. Using a whiteboard to draw a diagram with meaningful symbols for the relationships between different things can be helpful for those with a Visual preference. It must be more than mere words in boxes which would be helpful to those who have a Read/Write preference.

The Aural mode describes a preference for information that is “heard or spoken.” Learners who have this as their main preference report that they learn best from lectures, group discussions, radio, email, using mobile phones, speaking, and talking things through. Email is included here because, although it is text and could be included in the Read/Write category (below), it is often chat-style, with abbreviations, colloquialisms, slang, and informal language. The Aural preference includes talking out loud and talking to oneself. Often, people with this preference want to sort things out by speaking first, rather than sorting out their ideas and then speaking. They may repeat what has already been said or ask an obvious, previously answered question. They have a need to say it themselves, and they learn by saying it their way.

The Read/write preference is for information displayed as words. Not surprisingly, many teachers and students have a strong preference for this mode. Being able to write well and read widely are attributes sought by employers of graduates. This preference emphasizes text-based input and output – reading and writing in all its forms, but especially manuals, reports, essays, and assignments. People who prefer this modality are often addicted to PowerPoint, the Internet, lists, diaries, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and words. 

By definition, the Kinesthetic modality refers to the “perceptual preference related to the use of experience and practice (simulated or real).” Although such an experience may invoke other modalities, the key is that people who prefer this mode are connected to reality, “either through concrete personal experiences, examples, practice or simulation” (Fleming & Mills, 1992, pp. 140-141).

It includes demonstrations, simulations, and videos of “real” things, as well as case studies, practice, and applications. The key is the reality or concrete nature of the example. If it can be grasped, held, tasted, or felt, it will probably be included. People with this preference learn from experience, value their own experiences, and, to a lesser extent, the experiences of others. It is possible to write or speak Kinesthetically if the topic is strongly based on reality. An assignment that requires the details of who will do what and when, is suited to those with this preference, as is a case study or a working example of what is intended or proposed.

There are those who are flexible in their communication preferences and who switch from mode to mode depending on what they are working with. They are context-specific. They choose a single mode to suit the occasion or situation. If they have to deal with legalities, they will apply their Read/Write preference. If they are to watch the demonstration of a technique, they will be expressing their Kinesthetic preference. They are described as selective multimodal, and they may have two, three, or four almost-equal preferences in their VARK scores (Selective Multimodal was previously called “VARK Type One”).

Others are not satisfied until they have had input (or output) in ALL of their preferred modes. They take longer to gather information from each mode and, as a result, they often have a deeper and broader understanding. These people may be seen as procrastinators or slow deliverers, but they may be merely gathering all the information before acting, and their decision-making may be better because of that breadth of understanding. They are described as integrative multimodal (This was previously called “VARK Type Two”).