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To me, it always felt that I learned better and retained more if I took notes by hand rather than typing them in, and there’s research that backs up my hunch!
Scientific American points to a study published in the January 25, 2024 issue of Frontiers in Psychology with one of those “the answer is in the title” titles: Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom.
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The gist of the Scientific American article:
- Taking notes by hand versus typing results in more electrical activity across many interconnecting brain regions that handle things like:
- movement
- vision
- sensory processing
- memory
- It’s slower than typing, which means you have to pick and choose what you record, forcing you to:
- prioritize the information you’re presented with
- figure out what the main points are
- relate what you’re writing notes about to what you’ve learned before
- …and that means you’re more likely to stay engaged and grasp new concepts better
- Writing by hand means that your motor and memory systems have to work together, which improves your memory of what you’re writing notes about
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As Unified API’s newest member and Supreme Developer Advocate, I have a lot of work ahead of me — and a lot of note-taking. So I customized a notebook from a Scrum software vendor (I can’t even remember when I got it) with Unified’s octopus logo (see the photo above) and have been taking furious notes. As a result, I’m retaining what I’m learning, which is very, very important at this very early stage in the game.
If you’re learning something new, trying breaking away from the computer as a note-taking device, get a paper notebook, and try writing notes by hand! You may be pleasantly surprised.
Reading list
- Scientific American: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning (21 February 2024)
- Frontiers in Psychology: Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom (25 January 2024)
- Forbes: Four Reasons To Take Notes By Hand (22 April 2021)
- Scientific American: A Learning Secret: Don’t Take Notes with a Laptop (3 June 2014)
- Association for Psychological Science: The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking (22 May 2014)
And to be thorough, here’s an article that suggests that it’s not as cut-and-dried as the articles and papers listed above say:
- McGill University’s Office for Science and Society: Pen and Paper Versus Laptop: Is There a Clear Winner in the Note-Taking Olympics? (20 September 2019)