The first experiment tested both groups of note-takers exactly half an hour after the lecture, which left them without the opportunity to review. “But they were also more likely to take verbatim notes, and this 'mindless transcription' appeared to cancel out the benefits.” “The students using laptops were in fact more likely to take copious notes, which can be beneficial to learning,” the Association for Psychological Science (APS) reported. The findings revealed while both groups memorized the same number of facts from the lectures, the laptop users performed far worse when they were tested on ideas. Mueller and Oppenheimer were interested in observing the students’ ability to recall facts and concepts, providing a deeper understanding of the topic.
The participants were then tested on the material covered in the lecture half an hour later. In the first study, a cohort of college students were asked to listen to the same lectures and employ their usual note-taking strategy to transcribe important information.
To explore which medium is beneficial for note-taking, two psychological scientists, Pam Mueller of Princeton and Daniel Oppenheimer, a team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, decided to test the effects handwriting or typing notes had on students’ learning abilities in a series of two experiments. As the trend of bringing laptops to class continually increases - with more than 50 percent of college students reporting use in class at least once a week - researchers want to see if this positively or negatively affects cognitive processing, compared to handwriting notes. Typing notes, however, eliminates the possibility of losing the notes and handouts while providing organization and clear legibility. Those who handwrite notes claim it provides flexibility and control, with the ability to include various formats and annotations often limited by word processing formats. However, with the advancement in modern technology, note-taking is changing, and for many, brings up the question over which medium to use to take notes. Note-taking is a practical way to acquire and retain information while saving time and effort. In this world there are two types of people: those who insist on handwriting and those who insist on typing to take notes. In the digital age, using laptops, or “notebooks,” to transcribe lectures has become common practice, but can typing electronic, copious notes be harmful to academic performance? According to a recent study in a forthcoming issue of the journal Psychological Science, using pen and paper, not laptops, to take notes boosts memory and the ability to retain and understand concepts. Note-taking using pen and paper has quickly become obsolete, at least in college classrooms.