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We are all so bombarded by information every day and our brains are overloaded with short-term items. You need techniques to move what you learn from short-term memory to long-term memory and be able to ‘locate’ that information when you need it. This can’t happen without good gathering and storage habits!
This short article will present some reasons why taking notes by hand (paper and writing implement) is an easy way to cement learnings for future recall from business meetings and classes.
"Anything that creates active learning — generating understanding on your own — is very effective in retention. It basically means the learner needs to become more involved and more engaged, and less passive."[1]
Laptop Note-taking Research
A study[2] by Pam Mueller and Daniel Oppenheimer looked at the note-taking habits of college students from Princeton and UCLA. Students watched a 15-minute TED talk video, taking notes along the way. Researchers compared those who took notes by hand and those who took notes on a laptop and found that while the factual recall of knowledge was similar, the conceptual recall had a clear winner.
Those who took notes by hand did significantly better on understanding concepts.
Beyond a better understanding of concepts, a no-laptop rule helps with focus and attention, and surprisingly improves handwriting (you must be able to decipher your notes for later).
The graph below illustrates the difference in individual performance between those who took notes by hand and those who took notes on a laptop during classes and meetings. Findings demonstrated that while factual recall of information is similar, conceptual recall is significantly better for those who take notes by hand (connecting ideas for better recall and retrieval from long-term memory).
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| The Pen is Mightier than the Keyboard |
Your brain is continually upgrading what is stored in it by your everyday experiences as well as formal learning situations. Handwriting helps you more deeply ‘encode’ what you are trying to learn because it gives you time to push the learning further into memory.
How We Remember
Basically, there are two modes of thinking that result in the different ways memories are stored.
· Focused – when you concentrate on the topic at hand and eliminate as many distractions as possible – like cramming for an exam. This mode activates superficial, short-term memory. (Short-term memory is like a big bucket. As it gets full, it spills out information. This information is lost from memory.)
· Diffused – a more relaxed style, a more neural-resting state. During this mode, ideas travel along regular and familiar patterns and activate deep, long-term memory. (Long-term memory is like containers where information is stored more securely. These memories are stored in ‘somewhat’ orderly ways for future retrieval.)
If you want to remember the things you are learning, you need to establish connections within your brain between focused (short-term) and diffused (long-term storage). If not, the learnings evaporate out of the focused bucket.
For a thought to stay put, those new thoughts need space to stretch out and ‘search broadly’ to make sensible and strong connections. Taking notes by hand or a bit of momentary daydreaming or looking into the distance gives this short-term/ long-term memory process time to do just that.
One of the great lessons I learned from great leaders such as Ted Turner and Richard Branson was that you should never feel awkward take notes by hand while you are listening to someone. Not only would it help remember what others said it also was a good way of letting others know you were truly listening. Plus. later you can use those same nuggets of wisdom to strengthened your future.
Brain Exercising
In conclusion, your brain is somewhat like a muscle. When you go to a class or into a business meeting, it is like going to the gym. To remember best, you need to practice both sets (different types of exercises for the muscles – focused learning) and repetitions (diffused, relaxed learning) to increase strength of retrieval.
Next article will feature note-taking methods that are easy and effective.
References
Books:
Copyright © 1995, DePorter, Bobbi, (with Hernacki, Mike), Quantum Learning, Unleash the Genius Within You, Judy Piatkus Publishers LTD, London
Copyright © 2014, Brown, Peter C with Roediger III, Henry L and McDaniel, Mark A., Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning,
Articles:
Halber, Deborah, ‘Making Memories’, BrainFacts.org, 27 September 2018: http://www.brainfacts.org/Thinking-Sensing-and-Behaving/Learning-and-Memory/2018/Making-Memories-092718
Mueller, Pam A; Oppenheimer, Daniel M, ‘The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard’, 23 April 2014, Sage Journals: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581
Shen, Yifan, ‘Effective Tips on Taking Notes in Class’: https://www.artofsmart.com.au/effective-tips-take-notes-class/
