Notetaking EBQ

Source A:

Introduction

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In this study, researchers examined whether taking notes on a laptop led to better memory recall than taking handwritten notes.

Participants

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Sixty-seven students (33 men, 33 women, 1 not reported) were recruited from a participant pool at a university in New Jersey. 

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Method

Researchers chose five prerecorded lectures that lasted approximately 15 minutes each. Although these lectures did not cover common knowledge, the researchers chose topics that would be interesting to participants.

In general, two participants viewed the lecture videos together in the same room, though some participants completed the study alone. The study room was preset with either laptops for computer-based notetaking or paper notebooks for handwritten notetaking, according to condition. The laptops had full-size keyboards (11 in × 4 in) and were not connected to the Internet.

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The lectures were projected onto a screen at the front of the room. Participants were instructed to use their preferred note-taking strategy of either writing notes by hand or taking notes using a laptop. The experimenter left the room while the lectures played.

Next, participants were taken to a lab to complete a distractor task1and a challenging memory task. For the distractor task, using a laptop, participants were shown several arithmetic equations and asked to indicate for each one whether the answer was correct. For the memory task, they were given several letters to remember for later recall. After several presentations of unrelated material, a grid with letters was presented. Participants were asked to click on the letters they saw earlier during the task in the correct order.

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By the end of these tasks, approximately 30 minutes had elapsed since the end of the lecture participants had seen. Participants were asked both factual-recall questions (e.g., “Approximately how many years ago did the Indus civilization exist?”) and conceptual-application questions (e.g., “How do Japan and Sweden differ in their approaches to equality within their societies?”) related to the topics covered in the lectures; participants also completed several demographic measures. The responses were scored by raters unaware of the conditions. Ratings were consistent, but any disputes between the raters were resolved by discussion. 

Results and Discussion

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Participants performed equally well across conditions for factual-recall questions. However, on conceptual-application questions, participants who took notes using a laptop performed significantly worse than participants who took handwritten notes (p = 0.03)2.

For each participant, the researchers determined the number of words in their lecture notes and the degree to which three-word chunks of text from a transcript of the lecture were present in those notes to determine the extent to which the notes from the lecture were verbatim.3Researchers found that notes taken using a laptop had a 14.6% verbatim overlap with the lecture, while notes taken by hand averaged an 8.8% verbatim overlap. Participants whose handwritten notes overlapped less with the verbatim lecture performed better on factual-recall and conceptual-application questions.

Source B:

Introduction

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In this study, researchers examined whether taking notes on a laptop led to better memory recall than taking handwritten notes. This study is a replication of the study from Source A. 

Participants

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A total of 145 undergraduate students from a university in Boston, Massachusetts, participated in the experiment. Participants received $15 in compensation. The demographic information of the participants is listed in the table.

Participant Demographics

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Demographic/ Percentage of Participants

Year in school

First-year students	12%

Sophomores	49%

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Juniors	23%

Seniors	17%

Gender1

Women	62%

Men	37%

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Race/Ethnicity2

Black/African American	5%

Asian/Asian American	24%

White/European American	58%

Hispanic/Latino/a	5%

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Multiracial	7%

Method

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After participants provided written informed consent, the researchers allowed each participant to choose either a pen and paper or a researcher-owned laptop for taking notes.  Participants were randomly assigned to view one of five prerecorded lectures used in the original study and asked to take notes while watching. Each lecture lasted approximately 15 minutes. The researcher moved to an area of the room where they could not be seen by participants. 

After the participants took notes while watching the entire lecture, the researcher collected the tools used for note-taking. The participants then completed a set of distractor tasks3, including a typing test, a questionnaire, and a reading span task. The distraction period lasted approximately 30 minutes and did not vary by note-taking condition. After completing the distractor tasks, each participant responded to the same quiz questions for the particular lecture they saw. The researchers divided quiz questions into two types: factual-recall and conceptual-application.

There were 68 participants in the laptop note-taking condition (12 to 14 participants per lecture) and 74 participants in the handwritten note-taking condition (13 to 18 participants per lecture). 

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The researchers determined the total number of words in each participant’s lecture notes and the degree to which three-word chunks of text from a transcript of the lecture were present in those notes to determine the extent to which the notes from the lecture were verbatim4. 

Results and Discussion

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Consistent with the original study, the difference in the mean number of factual questions recalled between the laptop and handwritten conditions was not significant. Contrary to the original study, the difference in the mean number of conceptual-application questions recalled was not statistically significant. 

The mean number of factual questions correctly answered in the laptop condition was 0.63 (standard deviation = 0.20); the mean number of factual questions correctly answered in the handwritten condition was 0.62 (standard deviation = 0.23). The mean number of conceptual-application questions correctly answered in the laptop condition was 0.74 (standard deviation = 0.19); the mean number of conceptual-application questions correctly answered in the handwritten condition was 0.70 (standard deviation = 0.23).

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Consistent with the original study, the total word count for notes taken using a laptop (mean = 230.69, standard deviation = 133.87) was higher than the total word count for notes taken by hand (mean = 136.16, standard deviation = 66.26; p < 0.001)5. Again, consistent with the original study, the amount of verbatim overlap for notes taken using a laptop (mean = 12.97, standard deviation = 6.53) was higher than verbatim overlap for notes taken by hand (mean = 8.13, standard deviation = 4.73; p < 0.001).

The results of this replication study are consistent with the original study in that they demonstrate that notes taken using a laptop showed more of a verbatim overlap with the assigned lecture than did handwritten notes. These results also showed that the type of note-taking condition did not affect factual quiz performance. However, not all the replication results are consistent with the results of the original study in that they do not demonstrate that taking handwritten notes leads to higher scores on the conceptual quiz.

Researchers suggested that it would be tempting to conclude that taking more notes causes better quiz performance or that taking verbatim notes causes worse performance. However, the researchers did not manipulate word count or the extent to which the notes exhibited verbatim overlap with the lecture; thus, alternative explanations are plausible. Higher word count or lower verbatim overlap may reflect other variables that could prompt students to take more notes in their own words and answer more questions correctly on the test.

Source C

Introduction

The traditional method of handwriting notes has largely been replaced by taking notes using tablets, smartphones, and laptops. It has been theorized that writing notes by hand requires more complex cognitive processes and may lead to better retention. However, few studies have investigated the use of tablet-based note-taking, which incorporates typing, drawing, and highlighting, and its effect on recall compared to laptop or handwritten note-taking.

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Participants

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Sixty-eight medical students participated in the study (31 men and 37 women). The participants ranged in age from 21 to 29 years old, with an average age of 24 years.

Method

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The participants were divided into groups based on their note-taking preference: handwritten, laptop, or tablet. The researchers felt that the most accurate representation of note-taking efficacy would be achieved by having participants use the format with which they were most comfortable. The tablet group was encouraged to use their preference of typing, using a stylus, or using a note-taking application. 

Participants were allowed to self-select into groups depending on their preferred method of notetaking; the groups consisted of 19 participants in the handwritten group, 7 participants in the laptop group, and 42 participants in the tablet group. 

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Participants watched a prerecorded lecture on a subject they had no prior knowledge of and were advised to take notes using their chosen method in preparation for a quiz afterward. After the video, students were asked to turn in their notes by either email or paper copy to the study coordinator. Following this intervention, students watched a different prerecorded lecture to distract them before taking a final quiz. After watching the second video, students were given a 10-question short answer quiz about factual and conceptual concepts covered in the first video. Students were given 30 minutes to complete the quiz.

Results and Discussion

There was no significant difference in the factual-recall scores on the quiz across the handwritten, laptop, and tablet note-taking conditions. There was no significant difference in the conceptual-application scores on the quiz across handwritten, laptop, and tablet note-taking. The median word count of notes taken was 121.0 for handwriting, 297.0 for laptops, and 131.5 for tablets, and the difference among these groups was statistically significant. The total number of drawings, highlighting, or other media/tools was 3 (15.8%) in the handwriting group, 0 (0.0%) in the laptop group, and 17 (40.5%) in the tablet group.

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Results demonstrated that there was no significant difference between the use of handwriting, laptops, and tablets in factual or conceptual comprehension, suggesting they are similar in effectiveness. It is important to note that the sample size of the laptop students was extremely small and unlikely to generate statistically significant results. These results suggest that taking notes using a tablet is as effective as taking notes by hand.