Longhand note taking is associated with better conceptual recall than laptop note taking.
A Closer Look at the Research:
Laptop note taking is becoming increasingly common among college campuses. Many professors worry, however, that this practice is less beneficial than students think. One reason for this concern is that there is a wealth of evidence suggesting that laptops distract students from the course material and consequently lead to less learning in class. However, even when eliminating the potential for covert Facebook snooping, laptop note taking may still be less helpful than old fashioned longhand note taking.
Psychologists Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer sought to measure the difference between these two methods of note taking. In their first study, participants watched a TED Talk while taking notes on either a laptop or notebook. After a couple distractor tasks, participants were tested on the video they had watched earlier. The researchers found that participants who had taken longhand notes did significantly better than laptop note takers on conceptual questions, but there was no significant difference on factual questions.
The researchers hypothesized that the difference in performance between the two groups was due to the fact that longhand note takers processed the information in the videos more deeply. Instead of blindly transcribing the message in the video, longhand note takers synthesized and summarized the information presented to them. Indeed, when analyzing the content of the participants' notes, the researchers found that a much larger proportion of the laptop note takers' notes were verbatim copies of the video.
In their third experiment, the researchers had participants watch four 7-minute lectures while taking notes on either a laptop or notebook. Participants were told they would be tested on the lectures a week later. When participants returned to the lab, one group immediately took the test without reviewing their notes, and another group was allowed to review their notes for 10 minutes before taking the test. The results are shown below.
The researchers found that participants who took longhand notes and were allowed to study performed better on both factual and conceptual questions than any other group, even laptop note takers who were allowed to study.
Given these results, the researchers suggest that reverting back to longhand note taking may be beneficial for students who wish to learn more in class and get better grades.
Limitations:
The researchers begin their article by providing a brief overview of the research done so far. Most importantly, they point to the fact that previous research has been limited in the generalizability to the real world. However, similar limitations afflict their own article as well in a number of ways.
- The informational material presented to participants was, in one study, 15 minutes long and in another ~30 minutes long. This is different from typical college classes, which often range from 50-75 minutes or more. In these longer lectures, computers may be more helpful for a couple reasons. It may be difficult to synthesize an entire hour's worth of information by taking notes in a notebook. By using computers, however, students may review and update their notes as necessary throughout a lecture. Second, if you'll recall, the researchers think that the deeper mental processing associated with notebook note taking is what leads to better memory. However, during a longer lecture, students may zone out and stop paying attention. During these daydreams, it may still be possible for students to transcribe on a computer what the lecturer is saying so that the student can review the information later. When restricted to notebooks, however, students who daydream are screwed. They're left with no physical or mental record of what the lecturer said. A study asking participants to remember more content for a longer duration would be step towards overcoming this limitation.
- The researchers had participants take the test one week after viewing the lectures. This is unlike the test-taking conditions of most students in college. Oftentimes, students will be required to remember the information covered in several weeks-worth of lectures. Students will be required to remember information they learned a month or two ago. Again, in this regard, computer note takers seem to have the advantage. Students who take notes on their computer are able to write more quickly than their fellow notebook note takers. And it may be that the additional notes computer note takers have would give them an advantage in the long run. They would have more to review than notebook note takers and would consequently perform better on memory tests. A similar study with a longer follow-up time would be appropriate to test this hypothesis.
- Participants had no incentive to perform as best as they could. And, needless to say, this is very different from the situation that college students face. College students are constantly preoccupied with their grades, and they are painfully aware that their future rests on getting an A in their next test. Perhaps additional pressure would urge participants in the laptop-study condition to study more rigorously.
- Finally, students in college are not practically limited in the amount of time they have to study. And certainly, no good student would choose to study for just 10 minutes. Perhaps, given a greater study period, participants in the computer-study condition would perform better.
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