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Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

#51

Post by chenxi9649 »

I wonder if it also had to do with the fact that handwriting is slower.

Which means that you generally hold the concept in your working memory for longer than typing. Which often times does not require the concept to be held in working memory at all because typing speed matches reading speed.

I also wonder if looking down at the page as you write vs looking up at the board. Constantly looking up and down is like a high frequency spaced repetition game, whereas the latter is a more motor/mechanical practice.

Re: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

#52

Post by munificent »

softfalcon wrote: post #31

I was late to this game of "going backwards" to improve my memory and understanding of what I read and wrote. Being raised by two technologically forward engineers, we jumped on the palm-pilot/laptops/tablets/phones/e-readers bandwagon very early. 5 years ago I started turning back to calligraphy, fountain pens, and hand writing. I buy books and fill up my bookshelf. It wasn't just for the memory recall, it was the p…

I love handwriting. As in, I hand-lettered every single one of the hundreds of diagrams in my two books [1]. I am also a sucker for nice pens and fancy paper. Office supply stores are like toy stores for me. (What can I say, I was a teacher's pet growing up.)

So I am 1000% the kind of person to get into fountain pens.

But I'm also a lefty. :(

I know it is possible to learn to use a fountain pen while writing left-handed, but it's a serious uphill battle and is never as easy and natural as being right-handed. Every now and then, I'm tempted to learn to write mirrored.

[1]: https://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2020/04/05/crafting-craft...

Re: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

#53

Post by justajot »

softfalcon wrote: post #31

I was late to this game of "going backwards" to improve my memory and understanding of what I read and wrote. Being raised by two technologically forward engineers, we jumped on the palm-pilot/laptops/tablets/phones/e-readers bandwagon very early. 5 years ago I started turning back to calligraphy, fountain pens, and hand writing. I buy books and fill up my bookshelf. It wasn't just for the memory recall, it was the p…

Just wanted to +1 on physical books and writing with fountain pens.

My daily routine involves journaling in the morning with a Pilot Custom 823 in a blank Midori notebook, doing all of my work planning + notes with a Lamy 2000 in a Traveler’s Company notebook built-up in a way that works for me, and reading physical books, marking them up with a Kaweco brass mechanical pencil. It’s flexible, keeps me on task, keeps me organized, and I feel like I’m getting better value for my time, if that makes sense.

I’ve tried so many different ways of trying to handle these things digitally, but have found that for me it’s best to use pen and paper for these sorts of things in conjunction with digital counterparts mainly for reminders and archives.

Re: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

#54

Post by bombcar »

sowbug wrote: post #11

Anyone else remember less from reading an ebook compared to a physical one? This happens to me, and I think it's a similar explanation. I recall less of where I read something in an ebook. But in a physical book, I often remember that a phrase was at the top or middle or left side of a page, or that I was sitting in a particular chair when I read it. There's simply more of the brain working when I read a physical boo…

This is pretty universal, and for some books (think: novels) it's not a major issue, but for referential works, I need the printed copy, and I do not want to switch versions.

The perfection of ebooks will be when you have one physical book with virtual pages that can change, but other than that it feels like a real book.

Re: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

#55

Post by egypturnash »

kerkeslager wrote: post #33
sowbug wrote: post #11

Anyone else remember less from reading an ebook compared to a physical one? This happens to me, and I think it's a similar explanation. I recall less of where I read something in an ebook. But in a physical book, I often remember that a phrase was at the top or middle or left side of a page, or that I was sitting in a particular chair when I read it. There's simply more of the brain working when I read a physical boo…

> Anyone else remember less from reading an ebook compared to a physical one? [...] But in a physical book, I often remember that a phrase was at the top or middle or left side of a page, or that I was sitting in a particular chair when I read it. This seems weird to me. Does your ebook reader not have a "page" concept? I read China Mieville's Kraken on a Rakuten Kobo about 6 months ago and I distinctly remember the…

If you're using multiple devices to read a book, physical memory goes right out the window. The location of a phrase on your phone screen is very unlikely to correspond with its location on a tablet screen. It gets even worse if you change the font size depending on your situation.

Re: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

#56

Post by michaelrpeskin »

Izkata wrote: post #42
jpcfl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also tend to remember where a tidbit of information was physically. For some reason, details like "~50 pages back around the end of the paragraph in the top-right corner of the right page" will stick in my brain. Then I can quickly scan and parse out keywords to find what I'm looking for. This doesn't work reliably with e-books for me.

This is exactly the theory I proposed in a previous post about handwriting aiding memory - that it's the paper and spacial memory assisting, not the handwriting itself. I did this often during school, looking up information in textbooks - I'd remember roughly the chapter/page, recognize the exact page, and know where on the page something was, even if I couldn't directly remember the thing itself.

That’s how a “studied” physical chemistry. Before the test, I’d flip through the book and review the equations. My brain encoded it as location on the page. Then at the beginning of the test, I’d scribble down all of the relevant equations from pictures in my mind. During the test, I’d flip back to my index of equations to solve the problems.

Re: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

#57

Post by zharknado »

The only conclusion that seems even remotely supported by the evidence here is that writing by hand is important for learning letters. As in, learning your ABC's. No arguments there.

The new study cited is a Norwegian small-sample-size study of college kids typing vs. writing Pictionary words while wearing an EEG. Not learning, I would point out.

What they observe is more connectivity between brain regions when they write, because well, writing and uses more of your brain. And then they make this immense leap to, "and it seems like the connectivity we see when people learn, ergo it's good for learning."

Then Scientific American amplifies it because it's a divisive non-falsifiable thing that people (like me, admittedly) get weirdly invested in. This is bad science and bad science comms. Show me how you decided that this connectivity pattern was evidence of learning when observed in a non-learning context—that's the crux of the issue.

I suspect you can't "see" learning of the type that college kids do in an hour-long EEG session. It unfolds over days, months, years.

Re: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

#58

Post by dguest »

cannonpr wrote: post #50

As someone with dysgraphia (more info here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysgraphia ), I often find the discussion about handwriting both amusing and sometimes disheartening. I understand that handwriting may help some people learn better, but I have found many other effective learning methods. It was liberating when I first managed to get my school teacher to accept printed homework. I'm not keen on articles that…

I'd go a bit further: for those who have terrible handwriting (or spelling, or both) typing has played a big role in landing an education or job. Before modern word processing it was much harder for these people to be taken seriously.

I don't doubt that writing by hand can be very useful to many, maybe even most people, but it's not for everyone.

Re: Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning

#60

Post by alok-g »

chenxi9649 wrote: post #51

I wonder if it also had to do with the fact that handwriting is slower . Which means that you generally hold the concept in your working memory for longer than typing. Which often times does not require the concept to be held in working memory at all because typing speed matches reading speed. I also wonder if looking down at the page as you write vs looking up at the board. Constantly looking up and down is like a h…

I too wonder the same thing.

In addition to holding the concept in working memory for longer, writing being slower also leads to better refinement of the ideas as you write as the brain has more time to process the thought being written down.

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