Assessing learning-style inventories and how well they predict academic performance.

In the fall of 1988, 79 students at the University of Nevada School of Medicine were administered two learning-style inventories: the Lancaster Approaches to Studying Inventory (LASI) and the Inventory of Learning Processes (ILP). Students' scores on these scales were examined in terms of the theoretical distinction between deep and surface approaches to learning. The data provided strong support for this distinction, with the scores on learning-style measures correlating as expected. The relationships between the students' inventory scores and their scores on two measures of academic performance were also examined. Correlations between measures of learning style and academic performance yielded low, nonsignificant positive correlations and were found to be inadequate predictors of academic performance. Implications and possible explanations for these findings are discussed.