Taking notes? Skip the laptop

Some things are still better the old-fashioned way.

While it’s tempting to whip out the laptop in meetings or classrooms, resist it, say psychologists. Speed isn’t everything; in fact, it can get in the way. Especially if you want to process and retain what you hear.

Typing may net more information on a page, but research shows it isn’t best for committing the contents to memory, or analysis. In a study reported on NPR and published in 2014 in the journal Psychological Science, Princeton and UCLA researchers explored how note-taking by hand vs. computer affects learning. Test subjects listened to lectures, took notes, then were tested on what they heard. The handwriters absorbed and understood more than the typers, even though the typers had more voluminous notes.

Quality wins over quantity.

Computer-users tended to type nearly everything they heard verbatim (even after they were asked not to in a second test). It’s a keyboard compulsion. The handwritten note-takers, however, can’t write fast enough to do that, so they were forced to be more selective.

That judgment is the difference.

Making such choices of what to write — in more summary form, or with words to trigger later understanding — involves relational processing, determination of relevance. So handwritten note-takers necessarily think while taking notes. That means more processing of information as it’s taken in, which aids later recall and understanding. It means distractions are less possible, because it takes concentration to achieve. It also tends to “weed out” less useful data, so notes are more meaningful. Not to mention easier to wade through later.

The researchers called that kind of analytical approach “generative” note-taking, while the typing alternative is non-generative. Generative note-taking pertains to summarizing, paraphrasing, and concept mapping; while non-generative reproduces something verbatim. Generative processes involve more areas of the brain as information is taken in, so later recall and analyses are boosted by additional brain resources.

In other words, taking a little time to exercise the judgment required to summarize or annotate allows more analysis, which increases learning, which aids retention. In a way, slower (note-taking) means smarter.

A certain tortoise and hare come to mind.

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist for the Hagadone News Network and admitted Neo-luddite. Not to mention slow. Contact her at Sholeh@cdapress.com.