In a study published last year in the journal Psychological Science, researchers found that not only are people better able to remember handwritten notes, but the shortcomings of typing still persist even when laptop-loyal note-takers are warned about them ahead of time.pixologicstudio/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Want to know the high-tech secret to making information stick? Don't bother. Whether you're a student taking notes with a laptop during lectures or a manager fumbling with your iPhone 6 in a meeting, high tech isn't helping. Instead, research has shown that the best way to absorb details is to go about as old school and low tech as it gets – with pen and paper.
In a study published last year in the journal Psychological Science, researchers found that not only are people better able to remember handwritten notes, but the shortcomings of typing still persist even when laptop-loyal note-takers are warned about them ahead of time. No matter what, it seems, you take notes differently when you write them by hand – and not just differently, but better.
In the study, college students took notes about a TED talk either by hand or on a laptop, then were quizzed on the talk's content 30 minutes later. In the next part of the study, laptop users were warned not to take verbatim notes and instead try to think about the material. That warning showed no effect on the ability to recall information, or on the quality of their notes.
In the final part, students took notes on a recorded lecture and were tested on the material one week later. Not surprisingly, longhand note-takers outperformed the keyboard kids. The difference was pronounced, with longhand note-takers scoring the equivalent of between five and 10 points higher on a 100-point scale.
"It's very significant," says Pam Mueller, a psychology graduate student at Princeton University who conducted the study.
Few people can write as fast as they type, and as a result we tend to take notes differently by hand, Mueller says.
"You have to be selective, so you're forced, basically, to process the information that's coming in," she says. "If you're typing, you don't have to be choosy. You can just keep typing and get a large chunk of it down and figure, 'Well, I'll just sort it out later.'"
This helps to explain why you can write down a shopping list, realize you've forgotten it once you get to the store, but still remember every item.