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Research · 2014Mueller & Oppenheimer, Psychological Science
The Pen Is Mightier Than The Keyboard
The classic study showing that students who take notes by hand understand and remember material significantly better than students who type the same notes on a laptop.
Read the original (PDF)Key findings
- Handwriting forces the brain to summarize and re-process information; typing tends to be verbatim and shallow.
- Handwritten note-takers performed better on conceptual questions even a week later.
- The advantage holds even when typists are explicitly told not to transcribe.
Why this matters
It's a study about college students, but the lesson applies to every age: writing by hand is how the brain learns. The earlier we build that habit, the more your child benefits.
Topics
handwritingnote-takingcomprehension
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