![]() Specifically, you should consider whether you’re expected to engage in conceptual learning, which involves reaching a thorough understanding of the underlying concepts in the material, or where you’re expected to engage in factual learning, which involves memorizing specific details in the material. The way in which you’re expected to interact with the material that you’re learning matters when choosing which note-taking method to use. This doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to improve if you actively work on how you take notes, especially if you dedicate yourself to it in the long-term, but it does mean that you should be wary, and honestly ask yourself whether taking notes on a computer is hindering your learning.įactors to consider when deciding how to take notes Conceptual versus factual learning However, testing shows that in most cases, telling students to avoid taking verbatim notes when typing doesn’t actually lead to an improvement in their note-taking ability. In comparison, writing down the material by hand usually involves a more in-depth processing of the material, since people tend to give more consideration to which parts of the material they should write down, as opposed to just transcribing everything the speaker says word-for-word.īeing aware of this issue might allow you to take better notes while typing, as long as you can successfully summarize and rephrase the material while typing, instead of just transcribing it verbatim. This means that when using a laptop, people tend to just type whatever the speaker or lecturer says, in a way that involves a relatively shallow cognitive processing of the material. In the case of taking notes during lectures, the main issue with typing is that people are more predisposed to engage in verbatim note-taking when they type, in comparison with when they write their notes by hand. A study on note-taking in the classroom showed that students who take lecture notes by hand generally perform better in tests on those lectures than students who type their notes on a computer.A similar study on the topic showed that taking notes using the pen-and-paper method leads to better recall ability than typing them up.An experiment on word recall and recognition showed that people remember lists of vocabulary words better when they write them by hand compared to when they type them on a computer.This has been demonstrated in a number of studies on the topic, ranging from those which examined memory in general, to those which examined note-taking methods in a classroom setting. In general, research shows that taking notes by hand allows you to remember the material better than typing those notes on a computer. Factors to consider when deciding how to take notes.Handwritten note benefits persisted in another trial where students were allowed to study their notes before being tested a week later. The improvement over typing notes was still present in a separate trial where typing students were warned about being mindless and urged to think and type a synthesis of the ideas. ![]() Results from lectures on a wide range of topics across three experiments in a classroom setting revealed that the students making handwritten notes remembered more of the facts, had a deeper understanding, and were better at integrating and applying the information. ![]() ![]() The most recent experiment involved hundreds of students from two universities and compared learning efficacy in two groups of students, one taking notes on a laptop and the other by hand writing. Again, students who wrote notes by hand scored higher on the test. One follow-up study with college undergraduates compared the effects of typed and handwritten note-taking in 72 undergraduates watching a documentary video.
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