Long Hand Writing for Long Term Memory
Take Notes by Hand for Better Long-Term Comprehension
Brain imaging studies show that cursive writing activates areas of the brain that do not activate when keyboarding. This benefits thinking, learning and remembering skills. Using cursive writing activates the same areas of the brain as playing music and, for example, students who study music in school have been found to more easily learn math. Not all students can afford musical instruments. Fortunately, pens, pencils and paper are available to most anyone.
It is shocking to find out cursive writing is no longer being taught in many grade schools. Seems to me, going to school should provide more skills, not fewer skills.
And This is Why
The brain develops a capacity for optimal efficiency that integrates sensation, movement control, and thinking by using cursive writing. During the learning and using of cursive writing, as opposed to printing or typing, brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of brain become co-activated.
While laptop note-takers remembered facts like names and dates the same as longhand note takers, they performed significantly worse in grasping ideas and concepts. When asked about the ideas behind the facts half an hour later, those using laptops did not display as deep an understanding as those using pens or pencils.
Mindless Transcription
Laptop users tended to just type things out verbatim without actually thinking about the information, compared to those who took notes that were written by hand. It appears that typing leads to mindless processing of information, while writing makes people express information in their own words.
Researchers write, “It may be that longhand note takers engage in more processing than laptop note takers, thus selecting more important information to include in their notes, which enables them to study this content more efficiently.”
Also, one week later, when participants were given a chance to review their notes before taking a recall test, longhand note takers also beat laptop note takers on recall. When tested, students who took hand written notes scored higher in exams and were better able to study than other students who typed their notes.
In addition, when tested, those students who took hand written notes and then reviewed those handwritten notes before tests, scored higher in exams and were better able to study than other students who reviewed their typed notes.
What to Write Down
Write what’s new to you. There’s no point in writing down stuff you already know
Second, write what’s relevant.
• Instructions, Methods and Advice
• Dates of events and names of people and other facts.
• Definitions of words that are unfamiliar to you or used in a different way than you are used to.
• Arguments and both sides of debates, lists of pros and cons, and critiques of key ideas.
• Theories: Theories are frequently the main points of many classes.
• Your own questions: Make sure to record your own questions or ideas as they occur to you.
These are some of the Note-Taking Techniques I Like to Use
It is not necessary to be super-fancy in taking notes.
I make a nice big title first at the top of the page and underline it. I write down the class, subject or author and maybe the date.
I like to make some key words or ideas nice and big so that when I look at them later they jump off the page and I notice them right away. Sometimes I use my pencil to print them so that they stand out because everything else is written in cursive, which is faster. I keep the details smaller.
I draw stars next to really important things I want to remember. I use numbers for lists or bullet points. Sometimes I circle things, underline them or draw boxes around them. If I have questions or thoughts of my own I put them at the bottom of the page so I know where to look for them.
Sometimes when the information is coming really fast in a talk, I write down key phrases or words with gaps in between them so a few moments later I can go back and fill in the rest of the sentence so that it makes sense to me when I look at it later.
Outlining is a handy tool. I write the most important thing first and under it list the details with short descriptions I want to keep in mind.
In essence then, I can take in the whole page at a glance.
The eye can jump all around like hopscotch. Of course we don’t want to get carried away so that the whole page looks like a big jumble. And I love pencils with big erasers on the ends so I can correct spelling and so my papers don’t look like a big mess with all kinds of hasty mistakes crossed out. I bring a lot of pencils so I don’t have to worry about sharpening them.
It is faster to write small and so that you can fit more on the page so you don’t end up with so many pages that you can’t find the one you want to look at. Then clip or staple them together if they are not in a notebook.
Colored See-through Plastic Folders
I like to keep them in colored see-through plastic folders for different subjects so I know where to find them. I even like see-through plastic file cabinets/storage boxes with drawers. I am glad they are available for those of us who have a tendency to suffer from Out-of Sight/Out-of–Mind.
One time I met someone who reminded me of me. I found out that we both preferred paperclips rather than staples and pencils with erasers over pens. I realized that meant we both liked to be flexible, to be able to easily make changes and rearrange things.
It reminds me of the value of books and notebooks as opposed to computers and other electronic storage. Don’t get me wrong. I love computers, etc. for the access and connection they provide, the ability to perform tasks and to communicate. I rarely think anything is an either/or situation. If you generate a lot of ideas at oddball times, or jot down things to do as you think of them, sometimes small notepads are easier, since you can have them in multiple places and they are easy to flip through in a flash.
I Still Love Books
Fanning through the pages of a book is really fast if you are hunting for something. Scrolling is much slower because it is so linear.
Psychological Science Journal – Psyschology Today