Handwriting facilitates memorization and learning
They arrive the exams and with them the formulas to "memorize" more and better, that is, to understand well what is being studied to pass the final test. What is the best method { Although there are many techniques of study, there is a secret above all: write by hand, it has been shown that students who write by hand (and not by computer) remember more and have a deeper understanding of the subject.
Among young students and university students it is very common to believe that it is better to take notes (and review) with the computer: the main reason given is quite logical, once you get used to typing the speed at which the notes are taken is much greater.
In this way, more and more students take their laptops to class and take notes with him: this allows them to go much faster, "catch" much more data and, also, do several things at once. Now, everything that glitters is not gold.
Better to take notes by hand
According to new research, students who write their paper notes turn on more. This conclusion has been reached through a work in which the principal investigators, Pan Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer, summoned university students from the United States to take notes and then analyze their memory for remember real details, their conceptual understanding of information and their ability to generalize information, according to a report in Scientific American.
In this way, half of the students were asked to take notes with their laptops, while the remaining part was done by hand. "As in other studies, the students who used computers took more notes ", they point out from this center of studies, at the time that they hurry to nuance: "nevertheless, those who wrote their notes by hand had a stronger conceptual understanding and they were more successful in the application and integration of the material. "
Cognitive processing
It is likely that, if it has always been thought that it was more useful to write on a computer, now one wonders why this discovery. According to the same journal, taking notes by hand "requires types of different cognitive processing to those needed to take note on a laptop, and these different processes have consequences on learning. "
That is, although it is true that writing by hand results in most cases slower and even "cumbersome", the work that the students do to "listen, digest and grasp" what they hear and, thus, capture it on paper helps to remember what was said in the clear.
"Take notes by hand forces the brain to make an arduous mental effort which encourages understanding and retention of parenting ", summarizes by way of explanation.This means that" typing "on the computer is a task by which students can quickly record what they are hearing, but they are not processing the meaning of those words, something that they do when they take notes with their hands, something that is later noticed when they study for exams.
Specifically, in the study the researchers were able to verify that the students who took computer notes made an almost literal transcript of what they had heard in various conferences. This, far from being positive, has been related to a lower retention of conference information.
"Apparently, students who use 'laptops' can take notes quite irrationally and repetitively, with little analysis or synthesis by the brain", they indicate in this regard, while explaining that a superficial transcription" does not promote meaningful understanding or the application of information ".
The advantage of handwritten notes
Apparently, the reason for the advantage of taking notes by hand is that the students perform a synthesized process. Therefore, the researchers comment that computer users can be "instructed" to write in a summarized form instead of taking shorthand notes; thus, its performance, memory and learning will be increased while they take notes.
It can be thought that this research has measured what students have memorized in the short term and that in real life students are examined later, so those with more notes "they play with advantage". However, on this occasion, this belief is not true either.
The researchers examined the students' memory with a small test a week after taking the notes, and even in this case those who took notes by hand learned more and better that those who had more notes because they had taken them with the computer.
The importance of these findings is very important, since they have a direct implication in the day to day of the students: taking notes with the computer ends up meaning that the brain of the students does not work and, therefore, loses the opportunity to facilitate learning and study.
Angela R. Bonachera
