In response to the trend to abolish teaching of cursive in
schools, about a year ago I posted an article on what I thought were the
developmental benefits of handwriting (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/memory-medic/201303/why-writing-hand-could-make-you-smarter).
That post has generated over 230 comments.
Now there is evidence that handwriting of lecture notes,
compared to typing on a laptop, improves learning by college students. Following
up on prior studies that indicated relative ineffectiveness of taking notes by
laptop, researchers Pam Meuller and Daniel Oppenheimer provide clear evidence
that handwritten note-taking produces better learning in college students.
They reported three experiments that compared the efficacy
of college students taking notes by handwriting or with a lap top. Those who
used handwritten notes that they studied later scored significantly higher than
students using laptops, including fleet typists who took vastly more copious
notes. Handwriters took fewer notes overall with less verbatim recording. There
are many possible explanations, beginning with the "less is more"
idea in which too much information produces cognitive overload. Notably, when
the typing students were told to avoid verbatim notes, they still did it. This
suggests that there is something about typing that leads to mindless
processing. Handwritten notes involve
more thought, re-framing, and re-organization, all of which promote better
understanding and retention. The manual act of handwriting requires more
engagement with the subject matter. Finally, handwritten notes capitalize on
the use of drawings and of personalized spatial layout of the notes.
Memorization involves not only what the information is, but where it is
spatially located.
Added note: Readers interested in education are invited to
join our Neuro-education group on Linkedin (https://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4883556&trk=my_groups-tile-grp)
Mueller, P. A., and Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier
than the keyboard: advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological
Science. 23 April. DOI: 10.1177/0956797614524581. http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/22/0956797614524581
I have had always difficulties with memorizing things, what I always did was writing everything on paper, this way I could read it back and it always helped me with memorize it for a longer period. It's nice to see evidence of it now :)
ReplyDeleteNow I am getting older, I try always one of these techniques http://goodmemoryimprovementtips.blogspot.nl/2014/10/3-memory-improvement-tips.html because I felt this was more of a memory improvement training. It always helped to improve my memory, you should need to read it. I think you will find this interesting :)