A person learns information better by making notes by hand than typing on a keyboard

Psychologists from Princeton University and the University of California conducted a comparative study of the effectiveness of handwritten lecture notes and recording material using a computer. They found that with respect to the understanding and study of the material being taught, handwritten recordings benefit computer.

“During the recording of lectures, people try to record material from dictation, and, if possible, completely,” explained Pam A. Mueller, one of the authors of the study. - In our case, the students had to choose what they would write down, because by hand it turns out to write more slowly. As a result, additional processing of incoming information has played into their hands. ”
')
Experts give different explanations of the advantages of writing by hand for memorizing and processing information. One of them claims that the information processing that occurs during recording improves the efficiency of learning and storing in memory. Another thing is that the training is carried out due to the possibility to refer to the previous parts of the recording and repeat the recorded one.

If you need to write simple text, then it turns out to be done faster on a computer; as a result, you can keep the material being taught almost word for word. But the records of complex material, with diagrams, explanations, and other fragments differing from simple text, considerably complicate the task. The question is what is best for learning - a complete record in the form of a “dictation” that was not specially processed by the brain, or a synopsis that was thought out during the drafting process.

After examining how different students memorized lectures, psychologists discovered that “computer scientists” and those who were writing by hand showed different results. With questions on simple erudition and memorization, such as historical dates, both groups coped in the same way. But when the question required the analysis of information and the comparison of several facts, the students who wrote the lecture answered it much better.

At the second stage of testing, psychologists warned computer lovers to try not to write lectures word for word - but even that was not enough. The instinctive desire to write down everything won, and the more words the student typed on the keyboard, the worse he learned the material.

At the last stage, students were allowed to look through their notes before the exam. One would assume that more complete, verbatim records made on a computer would serve as a better material than short notes. But here the handwriting record surely won.

Despite the victory of paper and pens, psychologists believe that new technologies will continue to penetrate the lives of students. Perhaps there will be those that will facilitate their life without simultaneously deteriorating the learning of the material (the same Livescribe pen , for example). In the meantime - from this year, for example, schools of Finland have already canceled calligraphy classes in schools in Finland. How this will affect the intelligence and knowledge of people, time will tell.