We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
PEOPLE TEND TO type faster than they can write notes by hand. Strangely, this is why you should trade your laptop for a pen and pad if you want to remember what someone is saying.
A new study published in Psychological Science shows why. Pam Mueller of Princeton and Daniel Oppenheimer of UCLA asked two groups of students to take notes while watching TED Talks. Some were given laptops, others a pen and paper. They watched the talks, and then, about half an hour later, they were quizzed on the content.
“For strictly factual questions, the note-taking method didn’t seem to matter,” American Scholar reports. ”But for more conceptual questions — ‘How do Japan and Sweden differ in their approaches to equality within their societies?’ — the typists remembered fewer correct responses than the scribblers.”
A follow-up experiment confirmed the findings. A full week after watching the videos, students were quizzed on the content. Again, the hand-writers outperformed the typists in recall tests.
Why?
When you’re typing everything down quickly, you end up spending less time with each piece of information. If you’re writing everything that the speaker says, then you don’t actually have to think about what they’re saying. But if you’re only writing selections of their speech, you have to attend to the most important points and get those down on paper.
Since the handwriting slows you down, you spend more time thinking carefully about what the speaker is saying, which leads to better recall of the information.
Another Princeton study came to a similar conclusion. It found that hard-to-read fonts (your Comic Sans, Gothic, and the like) actually lead to greater retention. When the text is more difficult to read, the authors argue, you’re subsequently forced to spend more time with each piece of information.
The business takeaway: When you’re viewing a presentation, attending a meeting, or talking to a potential hire, keep your pen in hand — and only write down the most important points.
- Drake Baer
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
There is something about writing that creates a more personal connection – bit like reading a book on paper rather than kindle
I agree with you 100% with the whole writing vs typing thing. But paper vs Kindle?? I really can’t see the difference, except with technical books where the pages are generally bigger than a kindle page. But for casual reading, novels and the like Kindle is great. Screens in general on the other hand are terrible IMO. If I need to read something in depth I’ll print it out rather than read it on a screen.
Always did hand written notes first.
I’ve barely written anything with a pen since I got my first PC in 1992. My hand writing looks like that of a 12 year old.
Mine too! I scribble notes a lot and use my own short hand when typing notes. Not sure half the time what I wrote let alone typed :)
I work in marketing and I’ve always found that writing ideas down and doodling in general is a great way to stimulate creativity and not just from a work point of view, you can apply it to almost anything that you have going on in your life.
They’ve essentially just encouraged people to use Comic Sans MS more, the end is nigh.
Comic sans is easier to read. It has more highs and lows like handwriting. It’s easier for people with dyslexia to read.
I literally just took a break from converting my written college notes to typed, thanks Journal for ruining my life… ;)
While I can see reasoning the problem is that if I write my notes I can’t read them back later…
Not a problem with typing: I can read, search, share, format, edit…
What’s new about any of this?
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Non-TCF/GVL Vendors
have your say