My high school chemistry teacher told us that when trying to learn something we should read it, say it out loud, and write it down. That reinforces that facts in three ways instead of just one. This, of course, was long before anything like personal computers or smart phones, so the only option for writing was hand writing. That teacher impressed us all, nearly thirty students, by memorizing all our names at the first class meeting, and it didn't take him very long.
Your teacher was right. And it's logical: the more engaged you're with what you learn, the better you remember it. That's why I don't believe computers in the class will improver learning a lot. Anyway: every pupil has his limits. When you're tired, or rather when your brain's tired, you don't learn anymore. Computers can't change that. I like to use computers, but not for things for which they aren't suitable.
This is the correct answer IMO. As someone who took notes furiously in school and college, I believe that the need to write the sentences and facts down correctly, as dictated or stated by the teacher or lecturer, compels one to think quickly and review the relevant nouns/concepts and their relations to each other. Because thinking is much faster than writing by hand, as well as the fact that you need to actively think about the next word you are about to write while writing the present word, you get a subconscious habit of "preview and review" of the words you are writing. What's surprising is that this is lost entirely in typing. That needs to be studied. It seems that the habit of typing fast pushes the word-prediction, preview-review process out into "muscle memory". There is an additional factor in internet communication, like these comments - we think more about the social repercussions of what we type - whether we will sound wise enough on the internet, or whether someone will object to what we are typing, etc - rather than focussing on the facts in question and the statements we are making. The focus shifts entirely into a different part of the whole thoughtstream. This is all preliminary self-observation and could be far away from general truth. YMMV.
I have always used this method when studying and honestly cannot imagine doing it any other way. I have seen other students studying by just reading the text from books or screens and always wondered how they could retrieve any information 😅
If they were randomly assigned to handwriting their own notes or typing the respectively her argument that the ones taking notes were just better at memorizing doesn't rally hold water. As far she described it it wasn't like they just looked at the students who wrote by hand and their memorization skills but randomly assigned them to groups. That should exactly remove the possibility that they were skewing the data by just testing the students who were just better students overall.
I type when I need to show text to others and/or read it myself. And do all the planning and journaling with handwriting. Yes, my handwriting is indecipherable
My writing is semi legible for the first dozen lines. Then it deteriorates in to crows feet as my hand tires. I'd love to write more by hand, but there must be something wrong with my technique because it gets really painful after just a few minutes. I've tried to hold the pen as loosely as possible, and keep my muscles relaxed but I still start cramping in 5 minutes 😕
@@VikingTeddy oh! For a proper grip you can try use old-school ink pens, they just don't work if you hold them wrong. If money is the issue there is dip pens - they are way cheaper. Sadly that ain't helped me: my issue - I think too fast and trying to rush writing. But hey hand never tired, even if I write/draw for 9 hours. Upd. And if that won't help, that may be a medical issue :(
I believe that one benefit of handwriting is connected with the spatial dimension, you have to align letters and words on the paper (and structure them in your thought), and make letters recognizable (to youself and to others), while a computer takes care of all the "format" stuff for you. And I also think that there are different kinds of typewriting, an old typewriting machine requires more pre-meditation of the phrase (and of the concept) while on a digital equipment you can always change something "later"
Forty-five years ago I had teachers who would tell us to write things down (i.e. take notes) because it would help us remember. Some went even further. They said, write it down, say it out loud, and tomorrow read it out loud before class. It makes a huge difference. That is not something I would do for common or mundane information, but if there is something that you want to learn and master, it is a fantastic tool. Write it, say it, and read it out loud.
I always bring a notebook to take notes at seminars and conferences where I scribble notes in handwriting. When I review papers or make notes for writing a paper I use handwriting. And yes, I still prefer fountain pens.
With handwriting, you can't write fast enough to take notes verbatim as you can with typing. Hence you must preprocess what you're hearing or reading and then condense it into something more manageable. This should mean that you're brain has to spend more time with the material you are trying to learn, etc. Also previous studies suggest that the more things tied to a particular memory, the more likely they are to be memorized. For example, an older study found that odors like chocolate in the air while studying, help when tested, if you can get the odor of chocolate during the test.
I don't get these people who can understand perfectly what a lecturer is saying instantly, and then process it and turn it into notes. If that's the case then you are wasting your time paying for university, you can learn what you need to online. What I think actually happens though is people "pre-process" the notes, by writing what they think the lecturer meant, and the end result is they now have incorrect / incomplete notes what they are studying from. Writing is stupid when you have access to a computer or a camera.
@@user-qq73r44 Shorthand (stenography) disappeared when typing machines became efficient and more silent... My mother knew several shortand methods. She had another job and mostly used shorthand when she didn't want other people to read her notes, though.
Why would you take verbatim notes at all? The purpose of note taking isn't to copy what's being said, it's to map your own thoughts onto it, exactly as you would do with first-hand observation.
Growing up people thought I was smart but I had to pull out every trick I could think of when I studied medicine. I would write information by hand, say the information in my head so I had an auditory connection, and even eat the same candy when studying and taking the test. I made it but there was a few rough moments. It made a difference.
If they were randomly assigned to handwriting their own notes or typing the respectively her argument that the ones taking notes were just better at memorizing doesn't rally hold water. As far she described it it wasn't like they just looked at the students who wrote by hand and their memorization skills but randomly assigned them to groups. That should exactly remove the possibility that they were skewing the data by just testing the students who were just better students overall.
Wish she also disclosed her bias in other more contentious videos like the trans and capitalism ones. She's not remotely an expert in those topics and it shows.
@@maquinaparlante5257she isn't an expert in most of the topics she covers.... She's a specific type of physicist, not an Omniscient science women. Her channel is basically: today I read on the news.
@@maquinaparlante5257this babbling is so boring, you'll find oponents for every single video she made, if you look for. I also figured the cap. video a failure, but if I would search for a channel that parrots my opinion, I surely wouldn't have issues to find one.
@@acasccseea4434 but the problem is that while most of her SCIENCE and physics videos are educational she sometimes makes bias videos, and her image is that she is a women of science so gullible people might think is right what she says. Just take a look at her last video abou climate change, alot of misinterpretation of climate sensitivity, overemphasis on extreme predictions... thats miscomunication to the public.
It can, however it's a limited cursive-like way in the code window. Ask ChatGPT and it will show you. I did. OpenAI could provide the option to change font styles on ChatGPT's page, though...
@@Dadas0560 According to Chat GPT: I can generate text in various fonts, including but not limited to: Standard Serif Fonts: Times New Roman, Georgia, etc. Standard Sans-serif Fonts: Arial, Helvetica, etc. Monospaced Fonts: Courier New, Consolas, etc. Cursive Fonts: Brush Script, Lucida Handwriting, etc. Decorative Fonts: Impact, Comic Sans MS, etc.
I clearly remember a turning point in my life. I wrote a note for someone and realized it wasn't very clear, so I wrote it again in print/block letters and haven't written in cursive since then. I'm a pragmatic person and don't care about how pretty things are. I care about how legible my handwriting is, and writing in block letters is perfect for that.
There is certainly something to be said for clarity! Printing serves that purpose. But there's no way in heaven or hell that I am going to stop writing in longhand. Anybody wants to read my diaries is going to have to read it.
I wonder if in the study at 4:20 it's the attention was the thing. If I'm taking notes by hand, I can pay, like, 90% of attention to the teacher and barely pay any attention to the actual writing. But when typing I have to be more concentrated on the keyboard and it would be easy to miss something.
The study results are confusing. I used to never takes notes. In 7th grade I was forced to take notes else I got expelled from the classroom. I wasn't taught how to take good notes and lost the ability to just remember what I heard. Probably because I was too busy trying to write fast. Now I find it easier to listen and type than to listen and write.
My experience from university was, I didn' t learn much from just mindlessly focus on writing notes that the professor wrote on the black board and not focus on what he said. Later years I got the notes in advance form the class one year above and read them before class and then I took new "small" notes on the same paper as old notes and just added thoughts and point of interested that the professor talked about (not write about) when he wrote on the black board. This is when i learned the most, cuz I could focus on what he said and reflect.
in the 90s when still in High school. I had a teacher that always said "From lead to head." Professors in college said if they say it write it down. My biases also. In college i used handwritten notes plus an audio recording of the the lecture. (yes on cassette tapes) I would rewrite my notes as a listened to the lecture again. I was able to fix scribbles and missing information. The multiple passes over the content really helped and actually reduced study times. I still cant remember anything i type now as my role as an Engineer. So still writing meeting notes.
Handwriting helps with memory. I studied for one test in grade school. The thinking being that the notes were taken directly from the text book anyway, I didn't write notes. I failed that test. I'm an 80% average student. Every test that I wrote notes during the time since last test, I passed. In university, I walked into class and found it was the day of the mid term test. I had been writing notes all term. I got 110% on that test. (There were bonus questions)
I can absolutely confirm that. I discovered a short while ago that printing out the paper I’m currently working on and taking notes at it by hand if I am stuck often brings the decisive breakthrough. I also do a lot of journal writing, privately as well as about the scientific topics that I currently work on. The effect of it cannot be replaced by computer writing.
Thought about having a remarkable for many years... yet I don't like the business model of subscription. I have one subscription now, and it's very itchy but it is for work. When I buy a software I want to own it.
From what I've read the only subscription is their cloud service Connect, which seems to work similar to google docs. It doesn't seem to be required to use the remarkable.
Wait, is Remarkable a subscription? This sounds especially inappropriate for such a product. I was tempted after seeing the intro but now I'm not that excited.
I can't do mathematics without hand writing it. But generally I think that if you type something, you don't need to remember it - because it's easily searchable / findable. When you hand write something there is more of a need to remember things, because physical notes might get lost very easily. At least for me, I lose hand written notes all the time...
My childhood was tortuous because I have always had issues writing sufficiently small, clearly and swiftly enough to satisfy the teachers so the keyboard has liberated me from that barrier. I can give you two of those variables at once but not all three at once and speed was always the major concern.
I had not handwritten for a very long while and recently started taking notes for a class. I watched my samples go from unruly to eloquent after a week or two. Have a great weekend ahead my friend.
i had a professor who wrote nearly every word he spoke during a lecture on the blackboard. ( He was an excellent teacher. ) So, note-taking amounted to copying whatever he wrote & a few other remarks. Trying to minimize errors, at least 2 students would do the copying. & then we'd go to a nearby copy machine to provide others with. these notes. If someone missed class, these notes were available later. Soon other classes were working together on note-taking.
I like very much your subtle sense of humor. I know from my high school days it improves memory learning if you write out the script repeatedly. When I watch your videos the closed captions often come up in German! Is there a German language version of your programs. It would be fun to hear you in Deutch.
I utilize handwriting recently to study for an important certification. I’ve found that I remember better the things I’ve written. In some cases I write important technical information multiple times to set it in my memory.
When I was in second grade, the teacher had us copy what she had written on the blackboard, it was information on how the days of the week and months were named. The subject was interesting but at that age took a lot of time to write down. I remember most of it after 60 some years later. In note taking, I have abbreviations and also note what is important, I find I write notes and not need the notes as much afterwards. I also used to study listening to music, if I recall what music I heard while I was studying then I remembered the subject better. For me, writing something down helps me remember better.
I learned calligraphy in high school, and it revolutionized my handwriting. I have long used notes as an aid to my poor memory, and I have found that if I write something down, like a phone number, address, or short quote, I'm much more likely to remember it without having to reference the note. I learned to type in college, and it is a tremendously useful skill for computers, tho obvi not for phones, etc., and it doesn't help so much with memory. Handwriting has been and continues to be incredibly useful to me, and so does typing. If I had to choose tho, I'd go with handwriting. But these days, I'd probably rather do it like your sponsor, digitally, to save on all the ink and paper.
I used to write a lot being a person with a vivid imagination. But after years of people telling me I have poor penmanship, I stopped writing as much. I never understood the problem, as I could read my writing with no problem, yet the criticism affected me. Now in my advanced years, I still write, but it's private with no one else seeing or reading my writing. It's more of a journal or diary now. I hope the skill of handwriting never goes away. It's a very special skill that should not be disparaged.
Writing something down most certainly helps me remember it better. My memory is quite good when I write stuff down. The funny thing is I choose to write stuff down in case I forget it, but in the process of writing it down, it most often just gets imprinted in my memory anyways, and I never have the need to go back to my notes later.
2:25 I myself am actually pretty good at imagining to type on a keyboard. I dont find it hard to find the keys, even when thinking about it. I guess it comes down to how you learn to type. If you start with 10-finger-typing you probably have a very different feeling than if you just start with the spot-and-hit-key technique. They should do a study on that :)
3:40 is a very deep thought. I'm a layman, so I see stages in evolution of human communication: spoken language, pictorial language, alphabet and written language, papyrus/paper, printing press, keyboards and computers. Somewhere in this spectrum is Sign Language and Braille. One fine day, when we are able to simulate telepathy through brain-computer interfaces, we will think of spoken, written, and typed communication being as cumbersome as Braille is for people with normal eyesight, or Sign Language for people with no hearing and speech handicaps.
This is very fascinating from the standpoint of neurodivergent individuals. I'm dyspraxic and from mid adolescence up until my early 20s, my speech was markedly slow and labored due to impaired lexical access. I knew what I wanted to say, but words just wouldn't flow. For context, I transitioned to adulthood in the late 1980s/early 90s when it was still common for people to write pen letters and send them through the mail. From late adolescence up until my mid 20s I started forming a lot of pen pal connections and would thus frequently write/exchange pen letters with these individuals. By the time I was around 22/23 years old my speech became a lot more fluid as if lexical access was improving. And this remains the case for me today. I often wonder what effect in any frequent letter writing may have had towards improving my rate of speech.
I find it easier to write neatly when I'm using a neat script and taking a bit of extra care, such as when I'm addressing envelopes (remember those?) as opposed to taking notes and making lists, and writing out a draft. Anyone else notice this?
I come for the adds. Thanks Remarkable. For a language learning your product is what I am looking for. To get a pro golf swing we ask the pro at the golf course to recommended the best club for us as an individual. Then we all wonder if the shoes made the GOAT or if the GOAT made the shoes. Remarkable is one hell of a productive tool that incopptates eye hand coordinated movements, writing, and the advantages of data storage. Sabrina is the GOAT who puts shoes on feet and teaches us how to swing a club. Thanks Remarkable ❤
Quite a few years ago I was interested in the Korean writing system: it’s quite an ingenious syllabe system that looks quite nice too. I found that trying to write them by hand made it much easier to remember the different symbols. Looking at those symbols and trying to learn them by just looking is not the same as typing them (I had no Korean keyboard), but I almost felt at ease while trying to write them by hand.
Yesss. Said it years ago: I believe that writing down, by hand, makes you remember those concepts/writing much better than if you type them on a keyboard. Why? Because you pay a bit more attention and you engage your eyes/hands/brain MORE!
I already knew this intuitively from experience whenever I practiced hand-writting and when I didn't for many years. I felt the same while I was practicing piano and singing.
I often first handwrite notes about what I've been reading, typing them into a electronic file later. I feel that I remember things better that way. Also I've noticed It's easier for me to spell correctly when writing compared to typing.
At the my bachelor, I took notes by hand. It helped, but afterward I transcribed them to a .DOC for better searching (I couldn't afford a laptop in classroom). At my master, I took notes in the laptop, either directly in .DOC or in the PDF provided by the professors (and I find it much, much better than handwriting for better memorization -- nonsense). I guess the benefits appointed are especially related to the person, not the method of notes writing
As someone who has had pretty awful handwriting from childhood I welcomed the advent of computers. I could actually read what I had written. I am not claiming it always made sense. Alas computers for me arrived long after my academic years, so lecture notes passed through the filter of impenetrable spider script. So while I'm sure of the truth of the research findings, for many it is just an academic talking point. One thing I started to do when passing notes for others to read' is to avoid exclusive 'joined up' writing. When one prepares 'technical drawings' one uses a printed text for clarity (individual characters). So I made a conscious effort to semi-print my otherwise 'joined up' writing. Most times it is legible.
Different pens, pencils, markers, can be fun to write with due to different textures and colors. Like most things balance time , efficiency. Learning kanji writing helps a lot.
I love writing by hand. Journaling and figuring out what handwriting I could do. I don’t do it ever enough with journaling. I often write down my most negative thoughts when I daydream. Or about my fictional character❤
It takes more cognitive concentration, and manual dexterity, to write in longhand, pen to paper, so it’s not that much of a surprise to me that memory maybe served better by writing things down on paper. Personally, I would say that it is more advantageous to me, and partly that’s also due to the speed of writing, it’s much faster to complete a mini-essay on the keyboard, than in longhand, and the longer duration of time in the act of handwriting, helps me to memorise things better. I think that writing in longhand has almost a meditative quality to it. Thank you, Sabine, for this interesting video.
At the start of my academic career I used to write all of my notes by hand because of that very reason. After a few semesters however, I had to switch to taking notes with my laptop because I'm just not fast enough to take notes while also trying to understand the subject matter. Additionally, my handwriting is garbage. It is so bad that I would have to copy my notes into word after each lesson. Of course that sounds like a great way to review your notes but the workload eventually got to a point where I just couldn't keep up. I love writing by hand. I love the feeling, I love using fountain pens and I love the flexibility that comes with handwritten notes. In fact, there are certain classes and use cases (for example structuring an essay or brainstorming topics) were I still write by hand, sadly however in most cases the benefits do not outweigh the drawbacks. Also as a side note, typing has a lot of benefits as well. Once you get to a certain speed and comfort level you can take notes without having to look away from the presentation. With a bit of practice you can become so fast that you have plenty of time to take notes, think about what has been said in class and participate in class. Also being able to write super quickly helps a lot while writing your first draft of a paper.
Some schools in the US are finally going back to teaching cursive handwriting. I used to write the word equivalent of the check value which helped keep up with handwriting. Now on the rare occasions when I still need to write out a check - I really have to focus on it - and its often messy, Even type is bound to be used less with voice interfaces. I just tried to write the word BREAD in cursive handwriting and it was a total mess. I had forgotten how to write the lower case B. 😱
You know, Sabine, when I was a kid at school I was having a hard time understanding my own handwriting to study for exams... So I decided to do the same my mother did: write in print handwriting instead of cursive... It's perhaps harder and people told me it would take more time... But it was the best decision I've ever made. Anyway, thanks for the news! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
I write the majority of my "intentional" notes on paper. After a notebook is full I scan it with my phone and save them to the cloud. I will write fleeting thoughts on my phone because I don't always have a pen and paper around and don't want to "lose it." My guess is that the major benefit is that handwriting forces most of us to slow down. This increases attention and therefore memory and understanding. It is also more tactile and that could have something to do with it to.
Schooled in the 50s, I've used cursive for decades. Penmanship was at one time something of an honor. I still use cursive in letters, (those antiquated missives of of days long past), to close friends and family. Still, as age takes its toll, I now use the printed word, for the sake of clarity. Looking at a side note, in history, there seems to be a trend that as a civilization grows, it's language becomes less expansive and detailed. Words become shorter, yet with more variable meanings, which actually stagnates communication. And so here we are, in the era of emojies and lol, wondering why we all seem to be on the wrong page.
Use it or loose it! It doesn't matter what you're talking about. Another way of saying it is: always when you win some, you loose some. There are studies (sorry I cannot produce the links) that say our brains shrinked the moment we started to write, about 5000 years ago. Before we had to use our memory to pass on knowledge which we did with stories. Writing opened up new possibilities, but we didn't have to use our brains in the same way as before, so we lost part of it (in my own words).
I was taking notes in school on laptops in the 90's. At that point laptops were pretty much banned unless I got special permission from each teacher. I may not have remembered as much immediately, but I took way more and faster notes, and I was able to read them. That made studying my notes actually possible. I even shared them when others asked.
There is something with the speed aswell. Handwriting, as is slower, gives more time for the working memory in the brain, so it come up with more choices. Fine and precise movements of the hand needs some relaxation, improving reasoning. It can be done outdoors, without electricity and if I keep the paper with me, it last long than digital archives which I must remember to copy and update every time the market change my expensive device and turn it into rubbish.
A testimonial to skeptics: As a retired clinician-scientist I can vouch for cursive writing. Back in the 1980’s all clinical notes were hand-written. Aside: interns at Johns Hopkins were required to type their admission notes. While more time consuming, I was more deliberate and concise writing notes out than when typing them. More importantly, my recall of said content was vastly better writing than typing. I could remember undocumented and incidental details better as well. Things such as side conversations and changing moods as well as the feeling of writing, the pressure and speed, even what pen or pencil I was using at the time, during the visit, even years later. So good was my recall that I would scare clinical fellows with how rich my walking memory was. As medicine became more standardized, I went from voice dictation to prepared on-screen templates and concurrently my working data base gradually became less robust. Yes, age could have played a role but my older memories remained crystal clear, even my college and graduate studies, even hand drawings, remain sharp despite decades of disuse. The point? The point is mightier than the tap.
Sabine you didn't mention the study about note taking long-hand vs short-hand. Did it not make the cut or did it not come up. The basic conclusion was that short-hand notes and typed notes had the same retention, but that long-hand generated better retention. Their hypothesis was that slowness and awkwardness of long hand forced the brain to summarize and digest the information. The mentioned that skilled stenographers (hand-written or typed) have nearly 0 retention. This is what always convinced me to stick to hand-written for note taking.
I might be completely wrong, but I think it has to do more with how much more concious you have to be when actually writing. For example, I usually play videogames on pc and type regularly on my phone, and since it's just pressing buttons in predetermined spaces it eventually just becomes muscle memory for translating what is on my brain. However, when I write I sometimes tend to have to pay more attention to how I am writing and seeing the letters more since they might not be as recognizable, but even then I frequently forget I even wrote anything, and am much less capable of remembering the reason I was writing or what exacrly I wrote. My point is, to retain information better it doesn't matter if you type or write it down, what matters is that when writing you are forced to pay more attention and focus on what you're doing a little more than when typing, which in turn allows more information that you receive to be processed and sent to long term memory. As a little test of that you could try to focus on learning something without writing it or typing it, and insteae when you think you have a good grasp immediatly try to apply your knowledge, I believe that focusing only on that one task and not getting distracted is mainly what will help retaining what you learnt. Remember though, I might be completely wrong, but even then the process of focusing on one thing and avoiding to switch my focus has helped me retain information pretry much for as long as I've lived.
I use an e-Ink like the Remarkable, but the remarkable hasn't the features that I was looking for. But the handwriting and then get the Text recognizes (offline for security) is the best! Even my bad cursive writing it can recognize, and I can handwrite my mails and send it, or make notes on a PDF and and and… it's so great!
I still have my homework from my science classes from the pre PC and Smart Phone era , and it was much better. It's deteriorated a lot . I did learn to type without looking a the keyboard before PC's which made it easy to do PC's. Trouble with taking notes in the classroom is your attention is split between trying to understand what is being said and taking the notes . I think learning is easier when you can listen to the lecture over and over if necessary. Kahn academy I think has a good approach to learning and it hasn't even been combined with AI yet.
I had experienced it. I had a thumb surgery and while healing it was harder to create 3D parts on the computer. Without some simple hand drawings of them before.
That reMarkable tablet looks intriguing, will check it out. I don't know if this is true with handwriting, but with typing it's possible to enter a flow state. Your reflexive motor memory (if that's what it's called) is operating in conjunction with a slight conscious nudge. Same thing with strictly numeric typing on a keypad. Accountants from 60 years ago, must have experienced this in abundance. I don't know if it's actually a flow state, but it feels like it sometimes.
Oh I agree with the handwriting helps memorising. I look at my Spanish language learning notes that are handwritten and it triggers my memory for some weird reason, its like the words are attached to my muscle and my muscle is attached to my mind. It feels like I am the words. That’s the sensation. It never happens that way when I read my own text.
I love my Remarkable2. I got the keyboard cover, as well. I am old school and prefer handwriting, and reading physical books and writing in the margins of them.
What I would be really interested in is, whether authoring texts, and particularly, doing so by handwriting, could prevent dementia in old age. Authoring texts is a highly creative process, that requires concentration, imagination, a good memory, and so on. Handwriting adds fine motor skills to the menu. From my personal experience, authoring texts is more effective in training your brain, than solving sudoku, crossword puzzles, or other brain-jogging activities.
The same team has a very similar press release in october 2020. The picture used in this video are in it so they are at least 3-4 years old. I know Sabine based herself on the new paper that came out but the technique and conclusions are not new. At most this looks like a refinement. UA-cam don't allowed posting a url but you can look it up.
i think it is mostly about slowing the process down tbh. typing on a computer is also about patterns, but the main difference is that almost nobody types as slowly as they write be hand and so the prospect of copying or just galloping when typing something up is much easier, it takes less thought, if you take notes by hand you are so much slower that you are forced to think about what to copy and what to reformulate, how to condense the material, and that leaves more room to review because it is more condensed, and also requires a greater memory to go along with the notes, that is, you are not actually just copying stuff, you are trying to remember it, and just condense the essential character down in your notes, such that you can refresh your memory later, i think that a large part if not all has essentially nothing to do with the modality and mostly to do with the nature of copying everything down, vs thinking about what to remember and what to note with more stringent constraints. it is more tempting when you are typing to just copy word for word what is being said. i would love a study on the types of notes taken by hand and with a computer and the correlations there, i suspect computer notes are usually longer and more of the copy format rather than the condensed essence format :P. but that is like my opinion man :)
It doesn't surprise me. I did something similar, during lessons at school I was sketching or drawing cartoons. At times of course it took its own direction, but I realised that it helps me understanding or memorizing, when my maths teacher forbade me to draw but to "stay attentive" (which I was, I was in the flow of drawing, listening to the background or getting inspired). I failed due to maths, left high school, continued on secondary school, to eventually study design. I feel I missed something, I still am interested in maths 40 years later, just need a different approach. It might be difficult to verify, since only a fraction of people have a drawing talent. My idea is that "doodling" has a similar effect. Memory doesn't only take place in the brain - or rather - the more the brain does with it, the better thoughts and memories get integrated. AI too works due to its webbing, the mass of information just hones it to ever higher levels of believability or life-similarity.
Since they introduced laptops in middle and high schools where i live, grades are on the decline. I see this happening with my own kids. I urge them to write more when studying and when they do, they achieve better results. For me that's a pretty clear indication that the research may be on to something.
For learning, I like to use handwriting. Taking notes is a good way of engaging the brain. Almost always my handwritten notes are never referred to again - although I have notebooks going back decades. They are device to make me think and focus while listening. I often write down questions I have during a talk. If they are not answered during the lecture I will follow up after. I like doing PowerPoints when I want to 'organize' what I've learned. Doing a PowerPoint or keyboard writing forces me to place ideas into context and a logical framework. PowerPoint is slower, but it also quickly reveals flaws and holes in logic and knowledge. "Teaching" a subject is the most important part of learning a subject. I suppose doing UA-cam videos serves the same purpose. Different tools for different things. This works with mathematics as well. I like using pen and paper to work through or 'play' with equations. I like to use Markdown to go through proofs and derivations. Going 'slow' through the proof can give a measure of 'clarity' as you carefully examine each term and relationship. Looks prettier too.
I cannot get enough scrap paper. I use computer files for storage and putting final ideas in tidy documents and also programs in assembler/compiler readable form. But most of the working and initial writing is done on paper. We were taught block letters first and later writing (with fountain pens - back then ballpoints were sneered at by teachers). I think it's useful to be able to write legibly in block capitals as written forms often require it.
I "had" an excellent audio memory until I reached my '70s and I could recite passages of poetry or movies. Taking notes was NOT helpful, broke my concentration. But I was not a good speaker unless I had memorized a written work or read it. I find writing by hand goes really, really slow, and takes unexpected turns but is very, very rewarding. Rereading weeks/months later also makes a "perfect" thought better expressed. Immediate editing is also necessary for every communication. The more time I take to think and edit, the shorter and more impactful the communication.
5:42 : Yeah, but if you associate keyboard movements and presses with letters and words it does something similar. That's how I learned how to spell as a child. Couldn't for the life of me spell before getting a computer and typing. Now I think of words I have trouble spelling as the hand motions to type it. Also, I've done A/B testing on myself and handwriting definitely helps memorize things better. It is slower and more deliberate and making a mistake more difficult to correct. All that means you're more likely to consider information and sort it better before committing to recording it and also analyzing it while writing it itself while typing is simply too fast and forgiving to give those same thought processes.
No matter how frequently I write by hand, I still put more per-letter spatial effort in than when typing on a keyboard. This increased effort also takes more time. The *slow* practice of recording one's own thoughts via handwriting (as opposed to usually faster typing speeds) lends to the improved encoding of the information in long-term memory.
I practise writing backwards with my left hand. I started when a fountain pen I bought didn't write forwards (wasn't designed to write forwards) lefthandedly.
For me, it isn’t one or the other…I write with vintage fountain pens and practiced for years to write in Spencerian script. However, I learned to type on a manual typewriter. As keyboards and software evolved, I truly appreciated the ability the different iterations gave me to focus on the content of what I am attempting to convey.
Mmm good points. A better analysis might involve looking at someone's brain that has been writing by hand for a long time and then having them switch to typing and looking at someone's brain whose been typing for a while and have them switch to writing. I would be curious to see brain activity results. Handwriting on one hand is rather expressive and distinctive, almost like drawing. Therefore it just makes sense that it would involve more of the brain to perform.
It's an interesting area of study. From my own experience I know that I will recall more information if I write it down (by hand) as opposed to just reading. I had considered that this is a form of double act; act 1 reading the paragraph, act 2 righting down the same paragraph. We are in a sense processing that information several times as opposed to just once when reading. There is an [are] additional cognitive layer[s] involved when writing something that you read. > I have considered how this process works when reading and typing to a keyboard but to be honest my keyboard skills are terrible. I think my poor keyboard skills would introduce more confusion rather than consolidating the memory of the information. That being said I am more inclined to recall complex source code by writing it into an IDE rather than just reading it, but again I feel that it is more of a "reading it twice" action". Copy paste doesn't seam to illicit the same memory recollection for me. It is similar when I am speed or skim reading. I recall the overall gist of the paragraphs, but the words/sentences are lost. If I need to recall the detail I have to stop skimming and read the section through once or twice before returning to skimming. > Word search puzzles taught me word recognition skills, which is helpful for speed reading. Word search puzzles also taught me to recognize low entropy or a form of "pattern recognition". This allows me to skim hexadecimal computer code for code lines with single full page scrolling (fast page at a time). Boggles peoples heads when they watch me do the matrix thing lol > The down side of word recognition is that my brain will automatically turn misspelled words or jumbled up letters in to correctly spelled words. Pain when you are proof reading your own work and it all looks correct, even though it is not. I either have to get someone else to proof read, or leave the writing on the shelf for long enough that I forget the detail of what I wrote lol > Have a good day/evening Sabine :)
02:26 I suspect that varies quite a bit from person to person. I can quite easily visualize the relative position of keys by imagining me typing a word, and it wouldn't be too much effort for me to arrange lose keys in the same same layout as a normal keyboard, or even draw them in place on a blank piece of paper, without using any reference.
A bit anecdotal, but back when learning Japanese, I learned hiragana by reading and writing, and katakana by only reading. Even after 20 years since then, my reading speed for hiragana is still around 3 times faster than katakana.
There is a more general topic this fits into, which I find fascinating: the idea of body intelligence (per phenomenology, not multiple intelligences). In children, finger representation is a better predictior of math ability than cognitive tests. Blind students outperform sighted students in math. Learning to calculate on an abacus confers much greater ability in mental computation. I think it's becoming clear that we've focused too much on the brain as locus for intelligence and for mental aspects in general. Itt, as relates to perceptual and cognitive psychology, at least, the artificial subject/object distinction is a significant hindrance to understanding. No one has come up with a competing phenomenological framework on which to base a formal science, but we know that subject/object is wrong/reductive. It may be that the resolution to many mysteries lies therein
With typing, I'm quite fast (learned touch typing in my mid teens, on a real mechanical typewriter), and the words flow out of my fingers nearly as fast as I can think of them (and faster if I have to think about how to put my thoughts into words). I do have a love-hate relationship with handwriting, because of "high error rate", which is much less of a problem with typing (nowadays).
I’m a strong believer that handwriting will probably disappear entirely in the next 10-20 years. Likely loads of typing will eventually disappear also. You could probably make arguments that we have lost a skill or that previous skills stimulated particular parts of your brain, however we a skill is no longer required we just won’t use it anymore and our efforts will be focused elsewhere
If handwriting truly improved memory, I would be better able to remember videos I watched. And Reddit stories I read. I do not remember any better than typing it down in my notes. I do enjoy writing to try and improve one aspect of my life that I feel needs improvements. Thank you Sabine, for always talking about both the study and even your own thoughts on these studies. If they wanted to do learn more about this, people would put more effort into focusing on the memory aspects and doing more studies in handwriting vs typing. I wouldn’t mind more studies on more things. Why not. And let’s hope the study is being paid for not by a company that sells pens, pencils, erasers and paper or staples. lol could you imagine if companies paid for these studies to make handwriting look more romantic and better for the mind and memory and even more warranted over typing. But then there’s just never enough studies for this. I do in fact love journaling. I do find it more romantic to write down my love letters in my journal rather than just my phones notes. There’s a charm and aspect to it that makes me very happy. Also, I’m adding this to my writing playlist! Thanks Sabine❤ sorry if my comment is scrambled and looks and sounds kind of smooth brained😅
Yes. It's faster. I have a 2 in 1 with pen support for that purpose. For quick sketches it's still pencil and paper. My handwriting is highly legible, as I've worked out a mix of block and cursive over the years that's fast and legible.
There are older studies on how to teach. People are visual, auditory, or kinetic learners. When you teach with all three methods you reach more students. You show them , you tell them, you let them have tactile experience. Writing is the hands on experience.
The handwritten notes thing was pretty well known among my friend group going through college. Typing it out, we could all type so fast that we could literally annotate entire lectures, where with hand writing it's slow enough that you're forced to do things like outlines. Even when doing outlines on the laptop your brain can kind of turn off as you copy things down. Not the case when writing by hand. You're forced to engage more directly with the words or concepts in order to pair things down and get things written before the topic moves on. And when doing review, reading hand written notes is more likely to force the student to think back and remember what the topic is about and the reasoning behind why they wrote down what they did. Not surprising at all to hear that there's at least evidence for this being beneficial.
I have notebooks filled with pages of handwriting. Most of it is directly copied from various physics or math books as the act of wiring each sentence down by hand in order to learn, follow and then remember. Just reading the book is not enough and especially with maths as each idea usually builds directly upon what has gone before.
I suspect any unique output is more salient in our memory. If you don't write, writing will help your memory. If you never type, typing will help. Requiring more parts of your brain to do something is not the same as 'more useful' activation. Siezures are not waves of genius.
I have a few...quirks both when writing and when typing. I don't know how to explain it... When writing, I will often go over a letter multiple times, for example, if the pen or pencil didn't quite make a dark enough line or the ink skipped a part. No, I can't just fill in that part alone because it looks different form the rest like it's out of place and I'll be compelled to go over it again anyway. When typing, there will be times when I will spam 1 key and the backspace key over and over, usually the S key (I have 3 keyboards where the S key is worn down entirely lol) and I really don't know why. Something about it not feeling right or not feeling even somehow or something, I don't know, I don't get it. Other times I'll back and forth with 3 keys (backspace between each to avoid a large spam to delete later) like E, R, T because I just recently used E & T but R was underused but it's inbetween so it has to be used also. And of course I'll pound 1 key now and then, also because it feels like it's underused or something, I don't f'n know. I can type really fast but it takes me a lot longer to type because of this nonsensical garbage. The S key also really often gets typed at the end of a word (or in between) and of course spammed and deleted. I don't get it. It bothers me but like, I can't not do it, it causes anxiety and makes the problem worse if I try to ignore it. Would love to know what the problem is. I mention both because they seem, to me, to be similar reasons/problems for both writing and typing. You mentioned differences between the 2 actions and how they work with our brains - these quirks feel connected in my brain. And yes, using digital paper I still experience the same quirk. And if there's no feedback at all like my phone is on silent and no vibration...I can't remember if the problem is worse or better, but it's hard to type (text) that way because there's no feedback. This is maddening.
Why ppl would recognize letters after handwriting them vs typing them: when writing, you see the letters as a series of parts; when typing, you see the letters as an uninterrupted whole. So, a B versus a D, when learned via handwriting, you know there is another line in the middle of that D shape, changing it into a B.
I received my BA in 81', my major History. All our exams involved writing out our analysis of the questions posed. Constant writing for two hours. No notes or books allowed. Just two hours and pencil and blue little notebook. Now that seems almost ancient. Still my house is littered with notebooks of, loose our bound, or notes on various things. I find it indespensible.
Hi Sab, good content as always, All my notes are by pen on paper as its slower and more thought full , although the spelling is dreadful . Im sure kids goto is a keyboard for smell checker funktion .Lol
it's the same cognitive enhancement that occurs when students have to explain concepts and methods to each other, rather than just listening to the teacher. perhaps many have also noticed how the amount we write in school has drastically decreased, as we went from blank notebooks to workbooks and handouts that are already mostly complete and students only have to fill in the blanks, and sometimes not even that.
My high school chemistry teacher told us that when trying to learn something we should read it, say it out loud, and write it down. That reinforces that facts in three ways instead of just one. This, of course, was long before anything like personal computers or smart phones, so the only option for writing was hand writing. That teacher impressed us all, nearly thirty students, by memorizing all our names at the first class meeting, and it didn't take him very long.
Your teacher was right. And it's logical: the more engaged you're with what you learn, the better you remember it. That's why I don't believe computers in the class will improver learning a lot.
Anyway: every pupil has his limits. When you're tired, or rather when your brain's tired, you don't learn anymore. Computers can't change that.
I like to use computers, but not for things for which they aren't suitable.
This is the correct answer IMO. As someone who took notes furiously in school and college, I believe that the need to write the sentences and facts down correctly, as dictated or stated by the teacher or lecturer, compels one to think quickly and review the relevant nouns/concepts and their relations to each other. Because thinking is much faster than writing by hand, as well as the fact that you need to actively think about the next word you are about to write while writing the present word, you get a subconscious habit of "preview and review" of the words you are writing. What's surprising is that this is lost entirely in typing. That needs to be studied. It seems that the habit of typing fast pushes the word-prediction, preview-review process out into "muscle memory". There is an additional factor in internet communication, like these comments - we think more about the social repercussions of what we type - whether we will sound wise enough on the internet, or whether someone will object to what we are typing, etc - rather than focussing on the facts in question and the statements we are making. The focus shifts entirely into a different part of the whole thoughtstream. This is all preliminary self-observation and could be far away from general truth. YMMV.
I have always used this method when studying and honestly cannot imagine doing it any other way. I have seen other students studying by just reading the text from books or screens and always wondered how they could retrieve any information 😅
It's hard when you're studying 1 day before exam
If they were randomly assigned to handwriting their own notes or typing the respectively her argument that the ones taking notes were just better at memorizing doesn't rally hold water. As far she described it it wasn't like they just looked at the students who wrote by hand and their memorization skills but randomly assigned them to groups. That should exactly remove the possibility that they were skewing the data by just testing the students who were just better students overall.
I type when I need to show text to others and/or read it myself. And do all the planning and journaling with handwriting. Yes, my handwriting is indecipherable
Whenever possible I grunt and point...Sometimes throw things.
Same here, only if could read my handwriting back… it will be like a super power cause it may take years for the enemy to decipher my messages. 😂
@@dimitardonev4507Exactly!!!🤣
My writing is semi legible for the first dozen lines. Then it deteriorates in to crows feet as my hand tires.
I'd love to write more by hand, but there must be something wrong with my technique because it gets really painful after just a few minutes.
I've tried to hold the pen as loosely as possible, and keep my muscles relaxed but I still start cramping in 5 minutes 😕
@@VikingTeddy oh! For a proper grip you can try use old-school ink pens, they just don't work if you hold them wrong. If money is the issue there is dip pens - they are way cheaper. Sadly that ain't helped me: my issue - I think too fast and trying to rush writing. But hey hand never tired, even if I write/draw for 9 hours.
Upd. And if that won't help, that may be a medical issue :(
I believe that one benefit of handwriting is connected with the spatial dimension, you have to align letters and words on the paper (and structure them in your thought), and make letters recognizable (to youself and to others), while a computer takes care of all the "format" stuff for you. And I also think that there are different kinds of typewriting, an old typewriting machine requires more pre-meditation of the phrase (and of the concept) while on a digital equipment you can always change something "later"
Forty-five years ago I had teachers who would tell us to write things down (i.e. take notes) because it would help us remember. Some went even further. They said, write it down, say it out loud, and tomorrow read it out loud before class. It makes a huge difference. That is not something I would do for common or mundane information, but if there is something that you want to learn and master, it is a fantastic tool. Write it, say it, and read it out loud.
I always bring a notebook to take notes at seminars and conferences where I scribble notes in handwriting. When I review papers or make notes for writing a paper I use handwriting. And yes, I still prefer fountain pens.
With handwriting, you can't write fast enough to take notes verbatim as you can with typing. Hence you must preprocess what you're hearing or reading and then condense it into something more manageable. This should mean that you're brain has to spend more time with the material you are trying to learn, etc. Also previous studies suggest that the more things tied to a particular memory, the more likely they are to be memorized. For example, an older study found that odors like chocolate in the air while studying, help when tested, if you can get the odor of chocolate during the test.
Someone should do a study comparing writers to shorthand (if anyone can still do shorthand)
I don't get these people who can understand perfectly what a lecturer is saying instantly, and then process it and turn it into notes. If that's the case then you are wasting your time paying for university, you can learn what you need to online. What I think actually happens though is people "pre-process" the notes, by writing what they think the lecturer meant, and the end result is they now have incorrect / incomplete notes what they are studying from.
Writing is stupid when you have access to a computer or a camera.
@@user-qq73r44 Shorthand (stenography) disappeared when typing machines became efficient and more silent... My mother knew several shortand methods. She had another job and mostly used shorthand when she didn't want other people to read her notes, though.
For me, it’s the other way around: I write faster than I type. However, sometimes I do have trouble deciphering my skribble afterwards ;)
Why would you take verbatim notes at all? The purpose of note taking isn't to copy what's being said, it's to map your own thoughts onto it, exactly as you would do with first-hand observation.
Growing up people thought I was smart but I had to pull out every trick I could think of when I studied medicine. I would write information by hand, say the information in my head so I had an auditory connection, and even eat the same candy when studying and taking the test. I made it but there was a few rough moments. It made a difference.
haha did the candy trick really improve focus and retention?
If they were randomly assigned to handwriting their own notes or typing the respectively her argument that the ones taking notes were just better at memorizing doesn't rally hold water. As far she described it it wasn't like they just looked at the students who wrote by hand and their memorization skills but randomly assigned them to groups. That should exactly remove the possibility that they were skewing the data by just testing the students who were just better students overall.
Sabine being aware about her own bias is the best part of this channel.
The jokes and puns are certainly not.
Wish she also disclosed her bias in other more contentious videos like the trans and capitalism ones. She's not remotely an expert in those topics and it shows.
@@maquinaparlante5257she isn't an expert in most of the topics she covers....
She's a specific type of physicist, not an Omniscient science women.
Her channel is basically: today I read on the news.
@@maquinaparlante5257this babbling is so boring, you'll find oponents for every single video she made, if you look for. I also figured the cap. video a failure, but if I would search for a channel that parrots my opinion, I surely wouldn't have issues to find one.
@@acasccseea4434 but the problem is that while most of her SCIENCE and physics videos are educational she sometimes makes bias videos, and her image is that she is a women of science so gullible people might think is right what she says. Just take a look at her last video abou climate change, alot of misinterpretation of climate sensitivity, overemphasis on extreme predictions... thats miscomunication to the public.
so, chat gpt should output in cursive ?
Ha 😅
It can, however it's a limited cursive-like way in the code window.
Ask ChatGPT and it will show you.
I did.
OpenAI could provide the option to change font styles on ChatGPT's page, though...
@@Dadas0560
According to Chat GPT: I can generate text in various fonts, including but not limited to:
Standard Serif Fonts: Times New Roman, Georgia, etc.
Standard Sans-serif Fonts: Arial, Helvetica, etc.
Monospaced Fonts: Courier New, Consolas, etc.
Cursive Fonts: Brush Script, Lucida Handwriting, etc.
Decorative Fonts: Impact, Comic Sans MS, etc.
what really will be impressive is if chat gpt can read my handwriting.
They did it in 1700s / 1800s with the Maillardet automaton, haha!
I clearly remember a turning point in my life. I wrote a note for someone and realized it wasn't very clear, so I wrote it again in print/block letters and haven't written in cursive since then. I'm a pragmatic person and don't care about how pretty things are. I care about how legible my handwriting is, and writing in block letters is perfect for that.
There is certainly something to be said for clarity! Printing serves that purpose. But there's no way in heaven or hell that I am going to stop writing in longhand. Anybody wants to read my diaries is going to have to read it.
I wonder if in the study at 4:20 it's the attention was the thing. If I'm taking notes by hand, I can pay, like, 90% of attention to the teacher and barely pay any attention to the actual writing. But when typing I have to be more concentrated on the keyboard and it would be easy to miss something.
Spot on.
The study results are confusing. I used to never takes notes. In 7th grade I was forced to take notes else I got expelled from the classroom. I wasn't taught how to take good notes and lost the ability to just remember what I heard. Probably because I was too busy trying to write fast. Now I find it easier to listen and type than to listen and write.
My experience from university was, I didn' t learn much from just mindlessly focus on writing notes that the professor wrote on the black board and not focus on what he said. Later years I got the notes in advance form the class one year above and read them before class and then I took new "small" notes on the same paper as old notes and just added thoughts and point of interested that the professor talked about (not write about) when he wrote on the black board. This is when i learned the most, cuz I could focus on what he said and reflect.
in the 90s when still in High school. I had a teacher that always said "From lead to head." Professors in college said if they say it write it down. My biases also. In college i used handwritten notes plus an audio recording of the the lecture. (yes on cassette tapes) I would rewrite my notes as a listened to the lecture again. I was able to fix scribbles and missing information. The multiple passes over the content really helped and actually reduced study times. I still cant remember anything i type now as my role as an Engineer. So still writing meeting notes.
From lead to head. That's a good one 😊
Handwriting helps with memory. I studied for one test in grade school. The thinking being that the notes were taken directly from the text book anyway, I didn't write notes. I failed that test. I'm an 80% average student. Every test that I wrote notes during the time since last test, I passed.
In university, I walked into class and found it was the day of the mid term test. I had been writing notes all term. I got 110% on that test. (There were bonus questions)
Absolutely! For most people, taking notes on paper is considerably more effective.
I can absolutely confirm that. I discovered a short while ago that printing out the paper I’m currently working on and taking notes at it by hand if I am stuck often brings the decisive breakthrough. I also do a lot of journal writing, privately as well as about the scientific topics that I currently work on. The effect of it cannot be replaced by computer writing.
Thought about having a remarkable for many years... yet I don't like the business model of subscription. I have one subscription now, and it's very itchy but it is for work. When I buy a software I want to own it.
Louis Rossman follower as well?
Exactly
From what I've read the only subscription is their cloud service Connect, which seems to work similar to google docs. It doesn't seem to be required to use the remarkable.
Wait, is Remarkable a subscription? This sounds especially inappropriate for such a product. I was tempted after seeing the intro but now I'm not that excited.
whats wrong with a simple xiaomi pad 6 for $300?
I can't do mathematics without hand writing it.
But generally I think that if you type something, you don't need to remember it - because it's easily searchable / findable. When you hand write something there is more of a need to remember things, because physical notes might get lost very easily. At least for me, I lose hand written notes all the time...
My childhood was tortuous because I have always had issues writing sufficiently small, clearly and swiftly enough to satisfy the teachers so the keyboard has liberated me from that barrier. I can give you two of those variables at once but not all three at once and speed was always the major concern.
I had not handwritten for a very long while and recently started taking notes for a class. I watched my samples go from unruly to eloquent after a week or two. Have a great weekend ahead my friend.
i had a professor who wrote nearly every word he spoke during a
lecture on the blackboard. ( He was an excellent teacher. )
So, note-taking amounted to copying whatever he wrote & a few
other remarks.
Trying to minimize errors, at least 2 students would do the copying.
& then we'd go to a nearby copy machine to provide others with.
these notes.
If someone missed class, these notes were available later.
Soon other classes were working together on note-taking.
I like very much your subtle sense of humor. I know from my high school days it improves memory learning if you write out the script repeatedly. When I watch your videos the closed captions often come up in German! Is there a German language version of your programs. It would be fun to hear you in Deutch.
I utilize handwriting recently to study for an important certification. I’ve found that I remember better the things I’ve written. In some cases I write important technical information multiple times to set it in my memory.
When I was in second grade, the teacher had us copy what she had written on the blackboard, it was information on how the days of the week and months were named. The subject was interesting but at that age took a lot of time to write down. I remember most of it after 60 some years later. In note taking, I have abbreviations and also note what is important, I find I write notes and not need the notes as much afterwards. I also used to study listening to music, if I recall what music I heard while I was studying then I remembered the subject better. For me, writing something down helps me remember better.
I learned calligraphy in high school, and it revolutionized my handwriting. I have long used notes as an aid to my poor memory, and I have found that if I write something down, like a phone number, address, or short quote, I'm much more likely to remember it without having to reference the note. I learned to type in college, and it is a tremendously useful skill for computers, tho obvi not for phones, etc., and it doesn't help so much with memory. Handwriting has been and continues to be incredibly useful to me, and so does typing. If I had to choose tho, I'd go with handwriting. But these days, I'd probably rather do it like your sponsor, digitally, to save on all the ink and paper.
I used to write a lot being a person with a vivid imagination. But after years of people telling me I have poor penmanship, I stopped writing as much. I never understood the problem, as I could read my writing with no problem, yet the criticism affected me. Now in my advanced years, I still write, but it's private with no one else seeing or reading my writing. It's more of a journal or diary now. I hope the skill of handwriting never goes away. It's a very special skill that should not be disparaged.
Writing something down most certainly helps me remember it better. My memory is quite good when I write stuff down. The funny thing is I choose to write stuff down in case I forget it, but in the process of writing it down, it most often just gets imprinted in my memory anyways, and I never have the need to go back to my notes later.
2:25 I myself am actually pretty good at imagining to type on a keyboard. I dont find it hard to find the keys, even when thinking about it.
I guess it comes down to how you learn to type. If you start with 10-finger-typing you probably have a very different feeling than if you just start with the spot-and-hit-key technique.
They should do a study on that :)
3:40 is a very deep thought. I'm a layman, so I see stages in evolution of human communication: spoken language, pictorial language, alphabet and written language, papyrus/paper, printing press, keyboards and computers. Somewhere in this spectrum is Sign Language and Braille. One fine day, when we are able to simulate telepathy through brain-computer interfaces, we will think of spoken, written, and typed communication being as cumbersome as Braille is for people with normal eyesight, or Sign Language for people with no hearing and speech handicaps.
This is very fascinating from the standpoint of neurodivergent individuals. I'm dyspraxic and from mid adolescence up until my early 20s, my speech was markedly slow and labored due to impaired lexical access. I knew what I wanted to say, but words just wouldn't flow. For context, I transitioned to adulthood in the late 1980s/early 90s when it was still common for people to write pen letters and send them through the mail. From late adolescence up until my mid 20s I started forming a lot of pen pal connections and would thus frequently write/exchange pen letters with these individuals. By the time I was around 22/23 years old my speech became a lot more fluid as if lexical access was improving. And this remains the case for me today. I often wonder what effect in any frequent letter writing may have had towards improving my rate of speech.
I find it easier to write neatly when I'm using a neat script and taking a bit of extra care, such as when I'm addressing envelopes (remember those?) as opposed to taking notes and making lists, and writing out a draft. Anyone else notice this?
I come for the adds. Thanks Remarkable. For a language learning your product is what I am looking for.
To get a pro golf swing we ask the pro at the golf course to recommended the best club for us as an individual. Then we all wonder if the shoes made the GOAT or if the GOAT made the shoes.
Remarkable is one hell of a productive tool that incopptates eye hand coordinated movements, writing, and the advantages of data storage.
Sabrina is the GOAT who puts shoes on feet and teaches us how to swing a club.
Thanks Remarkable ❤
Quite a few years ago I was interested in the Korean writing system: it’s quite an ingenious syllabe system that looks quite nice too. I found that trying to write them by hand made it much easier to remember the different symbols. Looking at those symbols and trying to learn them by just looking is not the same as typing them (I had no Korean keyboard), but I almost felt at ease while trying to write them by hand.
Yes! A truly fascinating symbolic system with a wonderful history of it’s origin.
Yesss. Said it years ago:
I believe that writing down, by hand, makes you remember those concepts/writing much better than if you type them on a keyboard.
Why? Because you pay a bit more attention and you engage your eyes/hands/brain MORE!
I already knew this intuitively from experience whenever I practiced hand-writting and when I didn't for many years. I felt the same while I was practicing piano and singing.
I often first handwrite notes about what I've been reading, typing them into a electronic file later. I feel that I remember things better that way. Also I've noticed It's easier for me to spell correctly when writing compared to typing.
At the my bachelor, I took notes by hand. It helped, but afterward I transcribed them to a .DOC for better searching (I couldn't afford a laptop in classroom). At my master, I took notes in the laptop, either directly in .DOC or in the PDF provided by the professors (and I find it much, much better than handwriting for better memorization -- nonsense). I guess the benefits appointed are especially related to the person, not the method of notes writing
As someone who has had pretty awful handwriting from childhood I welcomed the advent of computers. I could actually read what I had written. I am not claiming it always made sense. Alas computers for me arrived long after my academic years, so lecture notes passed through the filter of impenetrable spider script. So while I'm sure of the truth of the research findings, for many it is just an academic talking point. One thing I started to do when passing notes for others to read' is to avoid exclusive 'joined up' writing. When one prepares 'technical drawings' one uses a printed text for clarity (individual characters). So I made a conscious effort to semi-print my otherwise 'joined up' writing. Most times it is legible.
Different pens, pencils, markers, can be fun to write with due to different textures and colors. Like most things balance time , efficiency. Learning kanji writing helps a lot.
I love writing by hand. Journaling and figuring out what handwriting I could do.
I don’t do it ever enough with journaling. I often write down my most negative thoughts when I daydream. Or about my fictional character❤
It takes more cognitive concentration, and manual dexterity, to write in longhand, pen to paper, so it’s not that much of a surprise to me that memory maybe served better by writing things down on paper. Personally, I would say that it is more advantageous to me, and partly that’s also due to the speed of writing, it’s much faster to complete a mini-essay on the keyboard, than in longhand, and the longer duration of time in the act of handwriting, helps me to memorise things better. I think that writing in longhand has almost a meditative quality to it. Thank you, Sabine, for this interesting video.
At the start of my academic career I used to write all of my notes by hand because of that very reason. After a few semesters however, I had to switch to taking notes with my laptop because I'm just not fast enough to take notes while also trying to understand the subject matter.
Additionally, my handwriting is garbage. It is so bad that I would have to copy my notes into word after each lesson. Of course that sounds like a great way to review your notes but the workload eventually got to a point where I just couldn't keep up.
I love writing by hand. I love the feeling, I love using fountain pens and I love the flexibility that comes with handwritten notes. In fact, there are certain classes and use cases (for example structuring an essay or brainstorming topics) were I still write by hand, sadly however in most cases the benefits do not outweigh the drawbacks.
Also as a side note, typing has a lot of benefits as well. Once you get to a certain speed and comfort level you can take notes without having to look away from the presentation. With a bit of practice you can become so fast that you have plenty of time to take notes, think about what has been said in class and participate in class. Also being able to write super quickly helps a lot while writing your first draft of a paper.
I write by hand in cursive when I'm studying. It helps me relax and helps me learn the information better.
Some schools in the US are finally going back to teaching cursive handwriting. I used to write the word equivalent of the check value which helped keep up with handwriting. Now on the rare occasions when I still need to write out a check - I really have to focus on it - and its often messy, Even type is bound to be used less with voice interfaces. I just tried to write the word BREAD in cursive handwriting and it was a total mess. I had forgotten how to write the lower case B. 😱
"How often do you write by hand"
"Not Sure"
Oh my god, they're right.
You know, Sabine, when I was a kid at school I was having a hard time understanding my own handwriting to study for exams... So I decided to do the same my mother did: write in print handwriting instead of cursive... It's perhaps harder and people told me it would take more time... But it was the best decision I've ever made.
Anyway, thanks for the news! 😊
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
I write the majority of my "intentional" notes on paper. After a notebook is full I scan it with my phone and save them to the cloud. I will write fleeting thoughts on my phone because I don't always have a pen and paper around and don't want to "lose it."
My guess is that the major benefit is that handwriting forces most of us to slow down. This increases attention and therefore memory and understanding. It is also more tactile and that could have something to do with it to.
Schooled in the 50s, I've used cursive for decades. Penmanship was at one time something of an honor. I still use cursive in letters, (those antiquated missives of of days long past), to close friends and family.
Still, as age takes its toll, I now use the printed word, for the sake of clarity.
Looking at a side note, in history, there seems to be a trend that as a civilization grows, it's language becomes less expansive and detailed. Words become shorter, yet with more variable meanings, which actually stagnates communication.
And so here we are, in the era of emojies and lol, wondering why we all seem to be on the wrong page.
Use it or loose it! It doesn't matter what you're talking about. Another way of saying it is: always when you win some, you loose some.
There are studies (sorry I cannot produce the links) that say our brains shrinked the moment we started to write, about 5000 years ago. Before we had to use our memory to pass on knowledge which we did with stories. Writing opened up new possibilities, but we didn't have to use our brains in the same way as before, so we lost part of it (in my own words).
I was taking notes in school on laptops in the 90's. At that point laptops were pretty much banned unless I got special permission from each teacher. I may not have remembered as much immediately, but I took way more and faster notes, and I was able to read them. That made studying my notes actually possible. I even shared them when others asked.
There is something with the speed aswell. Handwriting, as is slower, gives more time for the working memory in the brain, so it come up with more choices. Fine and precise movements of the hand needs some relaxation, improving reasoning. It can be done outdoors, without electricity and if I keep the paper with me, it last long than digital archives which I must remember to copy and update every time the market change my expensive device and turn it into rubbish.
A testimonial to skeptics:
As a retired clinician-scientist I can vouch for cursive writing. Back in the 1980’s all clinical notes were hand-written. Aside: interns at Johns Hopkins were required to type their admission notes. While more time consuming, I was more deliberate and concise writing notes out than when typing them. More importantly, my recall of said content was vastly better writing than typing. I could remember undocumented and incidental details better as well. Things such as side conversations and changing moods as well as the feeling of writing, the pressure and speed, even what pen or pencil I was using at the time, during the visit, even years later. So good was my recall that I would scare clinical fellows with how rich my walking memory was. As medicine became more standardized, I went from voice dictation to prepared on-screen templates and concurrently my working data base gradually became less robust. Yes, age could have played a role but my older memories remained crystal clear, even my college and graduate studies, even hand drawings, remain sharp despite decades of disuse.
The point? The point is mightier than the tap.
Sabine you didn't mention the study about note taking long-hand vs short-hand. Did it not make the cut or did it not come up. The basic conclusion was that short-hand notes and typed notes had the same retention, but that long-hand generated better retention. Their hypothesis was that slowness and awkwardness of long hand forced the brain to summarize and digest the information. The mentioned that skilled stenographers (hand-written or typed) have nearly 0 retention.
This is what always convinced me to stick to hand-written for note taking.
I might be completely wrong, but I think it has to do more with how much more concious you have to be when actually writing.
For example, I usually play videogames on pc and type regularly on my phone, and since it's just pressing buttons in predetermined spaces it eventually just becomes muscle memory for translating what is on my brain. However, when I write I sometimes tend to have to pay more attention to how I am writing and seeing the letters more since they might not be as recognizable, but even then I frequently forget I even wrote anything, and am much less capable of remembering the reason I was writing or what exacrly I wrote.
My point is, to retain information better it doesn't matter if you type or write it down, what matters is that when writing you are forced to pay more attention and focus on what you're doing a little more than when typing, which in turn allows more information that you receive to be processed and sent to long term memory. As a little test of that you could try to focus on learning something without writing it or typing it, and insteae when you think you have a good grasp immediatly try to apply your knowledge, I believe that focusing only on that one task and not getting distracted is mainly what will help retaining what you learnt.
Remember though, I might be completely wrong, but even then the process of focusing on one thing and avoiding to switch my focus has helped me retain information pretry much for as long as I've lived.
I use an e-Ink like the Remarkable, but the remarkable hasn't the features that I was looking for.
But the handwriting and then get the Text recognizes (offline for security) is the best! Even my bad cursive writing it can recognize, and I can handwrite my mails and send it, or make notes on a PDF and and and… it's so great!
Question: "either or" or "both and", are there any studies comparing these? Or perhaps, diagarming/drawing/flow charting for note taking?
I still have my homework from my science classes from the pre PC and Smart Phone era , and it was much better. It's deteriorated a lot . I did learn
to type without looking a the keyboard before PC's which made it easy to do PC's. Trouble with taking notes in the classroom is your attention is split
between trying to understand what is being said and taking the notes . I think learning is easier when you can listen to the lecture over and over if necessary. Kahn academy I think has a good approach to learning and it hasn't even been combined with AI yet.
I type a lot but all my schematics, designs and engineering notes are pen and paper. I couldn't live without a notebook.
I journal most days with a fountain pen. I have no idea if it has any therapeutic benefits but I like doing it - which might be a benefit in itself
A hand-written list feels better than a digital one.
I had experienced it. I had a thumb surgery and while healing it was harder to create 3D parts on the computer. Without some simple hand drawings of them before.
That reMarkable tablet looks intriguing, will check it out.
I don't know if this is true with handwriting, but with typing it's possible to enter a flow state. Your reflexive motor memory (if that's what it's called) is operating in conjunction with a slight conscious nudge.
Same thing with strictly numeric typing on a keypad. Accountants from 60 years ago, must have experienced this in abundance.
I don't know if it's actually a flow state, but it feels like it sometimes.
Hand writing is precious.
Its an intimate and personal thing.
Its a representation of who we are, and how we feel.
Oh I agree with the handwriting helps memorising. I look at my Spanish language learning notes that are handwritten and it triggers my memory for some weird reason, its like the words are attached to my muscle and my muscle is attached to my mind. It feels like I am the words. That’s the sensation. It never happens that way when I read my own text.
I love my Remarkable2. I got the keyboard cover, as well. I am old school and prefer handwriting, and reading physical books and writing in the margins of them.
When i was having mental issues my penmanship suffered greatly. When my brain is functioning my writing is better. they need to teach this.
For doing calculations handwriting is a must, so I probably write more than I type.
What I would be really interested in is, whether authoring texts, and particularly, doing so by handwriting, could prevent dementia in old age. Authoring texts is a highly creative process, that requires concentration, imagination, a good memory, and so on. Handwriting adds fine motor skills to the menu. From my personal experience, authoring texts is more effective in training your brain, than solving sudoku, crossword puzzles, or other brain-jogging activities.
The same team has a very similar press release in october 2020. The picture used in this video are in it so they are at least 3-4 years old.
I know Sabine based herself on the new paper that came out but the technique and conclusions are not new. At most this looks like a refinement.
UA-cam don't allowed posting a url but you can look it up.
i think it is mostly about slowing the process down tbh. typing on a computer is also about patterns, but the main difference is that almost nobody types as slowly as they write be hand and so the prospect of copying or just galloping when typing something up is much easier, it takes less thought, if you take notes by hand you are so much slower that you are forced to think about what to copy and what to reformulate, how to condense the material, and that leaves more room to review because it is more condensed, and also requires a greater memory to go along with the notes, that is, you are not actually just copying stuff, you are trying to remember it, and just condense the essential character down in your notes, such that you can refresh your memory later, i think that a large part if not all has essentially nothing to do with the modality and mostly to do with the nature of copying everything down, vs thinking about what to remember and what to note with more stringent constraints. it is more tempting when you are typing to just copy word for word what is being said. i would love a study on the types of notes taken by hand and with a computer and the correlations there, i suspect computer notes are usually longer and more of the copy format rather than the condensed essence format :P. but that is like my opinion man :)
It doesn't surprise me. I did something similar, during lessons at school I was sketching or drawing cartoons. At times of course it took its own direction, but I realised that it helps me understanding or memorizing, when my maths teacher forbade me to draw but to "stay attentive" (which I was, I was in the flow of drawing, listening to the background or getting inspired).
I failed due to maths, left high school, continued on secondary school, to eventually study design. I feel I missed something, I still am interested in maths 40 years later, just need a different approach. It might be difficult to verify, since only a fraction of people have a drawing talent. My idea is that "doodling" has a similar effect.
Memory doesn't only take place in the brain - or rather - the more the brain does with it, the better thoughts and memories get integrated.
AI too works due to its webbing, the mass of information just hones it to ever higher levels of believability or life-similarity.
"But I cannot for the heck of it tell you where the keys actually are" -- I can. I legit know every key of the QWERTY keyboard layout from memory.
Since they introduced laptops in middle and high schools where i live, grades are on the decline. I see this happening with my own kids. I urge them to write more when studying and when they do, they achieve better results. For me that's a pretty clear indication that the research may be on to something.
For learning, I like to use handwriting. Taking notes is a good way of engaging the brain. Almost always my handwritten notes are never referred to again - although I have notebooks going back decades. They are device to make me think and focus while listening. I often write down questions I have during a talk. If they are not answered during the lecture I will follow up after.
I like doing PowerPoints when I want to 'organize' what I've learned. Doing a PowerPoint or keyboard writing forces me to place ideas into context and a logical framework. PowerPoint is slower, but it also quickly reveals flaws and holes in logic and knowledge. "Teaching" a subject is the most important part of learning a subject. I suppose doing UA-cam videos serves the same purpose.
Different tools for different things.
This works with mathematics as well. I like using pen and paper to work through or 'play' with equations. I like to use Markdown to go through proofs and derivations. Going 'slow' through the proof can give a measure of 'clarity' as you carefully examine each term and relationship. Looks prettier too.
I cannot get enough scrap paper. I use computer files for storage and putting final ideas in tidy documents and also programs in assembler/compiler readable form. But most of the working and initial writing is done on paper. We were taught block letters first and later writing (with fountain pens - back then ballpoints were sneered at by teachers). I think it's useful to be able to write legibly in block capitals as written forms often require it.
I "had" an excellent audio memory until I reached my '70s and I could recite passages of poetry or movies. Taking notes was NOT helpful, broke my concentration. But I was not a good speaker unless I had memorized a written work or read it. I find writing by hand goes really, really slow, and takes unexpected turns but is very, very rewarding. Rereading weeks/months later also makes a "perfect" thought better expressed. Immediate editing is also necessary for every communication.
The more time I take to think and edit, the shorter and more impactful the communication.
5:42 : Yeah, but if you associate keyboard movements and presses with letters and words it does something similar. That's how I learned how to spell as a child. Couldn't for the life of me spell before getting a computer and typing. Now I think of words I have trouble spelling as the hand motions to type it.
Also, I've done A/B testing on myself and handwriting definitely helps memorize things better. It is slower and more deliberate and making a mistake more difficult to correct. All that means you're more likely to consider information and sort it better before committing to recording it and also analyzing it while writing it itself while typing is simply too fast and forgiving to give those same thought processes.
No matter how frequently I write by hand, I still put more per-letter spatial effort in than when typing on a keyboard. This increased effort also takes more time. The *slow* practice of recording one's own thoughts via handwriting (as opposed to usually faster typing speeds) lends to the improved encoding of the information in long-term memory.
I practise writing backwards with my left hand. I started when a fountain pen I bought didn't write forwards (wasn't designed to write forwards) lefthandedly.
For me, it isn’t one or the other…I write with vintage fountain pens and practiced for years to write in Spencerian script. However, I learned to type on a manual typewriter. As keyboards and software evolved, I truly appreciated the ability the different iterations gave me to focus on the content of what I am attempting to convey.
Mmm good points. A better analysis might involve looking at someone's brain that has been writing by hand for a long time and then having them switch to typing and looking at someone's brain whose been typing for a while and have them switch to writing. I would be curious to see brain activity results. Handwriting on one hand is rather expressive and distinctive, almost like drawing. Therefore it just makes sense that it would involve more of the brain to perform.
It's an interesting area of study. From my own experience I know that I will recall more information if I write it down (by hand) as opposed to just reading. I had considered that this is a form of double act; act 1 reading the paragraph, act 2 righting down the same paragraph. We are in a sense processing that information several times as opposed to just once when reading. There is an [are] additional cognitive layer[s] involved when writing something that you read.
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I have considered how this process works when reading and typing to a keyboard but to be honest my keyboard skills are terrible. I think my poor keyboard skills would introduce more confusion rather than consolidating the memory of the information. That being said I am more inclined to recall complex source code by writing it into an IDE rather than just reading it, but again I feel that it is more of a "reading it twice" action". Copy paste doesn't seam to illicit the same memory recollection for me.
It is similar when I am speed or skim reading. I recall the overall gist of the paragraphs, but the words/sentences are lost. If I need to recall the detail I have to stop skimming and read the section through once or twice before returning to skimming.
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Word search puzzles taught me word recognition skills, which is helpful for speed reading. Word search puzzles also taught me to recognize low entropy or a form of "pattern recognition". This allows me to skim hexadecimal computer code for code lines with single full page scrolling (fast page at a time). Boggles peoples heads when they watch me do the matrix thing lol
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The down side of word recognition is that my brain will automatically turn misspelled words or jumbled up letters in to correctly spelled words. Pain when you are proof reading your own work and it all looks correct, even though it is not. I either have to get someone else to proof read, or leave the writing on the shelf for long enough that I forget the detail of what I wrote lol
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Have a good day/evening Sabine :)
02:26 I suspect that varies quite a bit from person to person. I can quite easily visualize the relative position of keys by imagining me typing a word, and it wouldn't be too much effort for me to arrange lose keys in the same same layout as a normal keyboard, or even draw them in place on a blank piece of paper, without using any reference.
Negative feelings really help to remember stuff.
A bit anecdotal, but back when learning Japanese, I learned hiragana by reading and writing, and katakana by only reading. Even after 20 years since then, my reading speed for hiragana is still around 3 times faster than katakana.
There is a more general topic this fits into, which I find fascinating: the idea of body intelligence (per phenomenology, not multiple intelligences).
In children, finger representation is a better predictior of math ability than cognitive tests. Blind students outperform sighted students in math. Learning to calculate on an abacus confers much greater ability in mental computation.
I think it's becoming clear that we've focused too much on the brain as locus for intelligence and for mental aspects in general. Itt, as relates to perceptual and cognitive psychology, at least, the artificial subject/object distinction is a significant hindrance to understanding.
No one has come up with a competing phenomenological framework on which to base a formal science, but we know that subject/object is wrong/reductive. It may be that the resolution to many mysteries lies therein
With typing, I'm quite fast (learned touch typing in my mid teens, on a real mechanical typewriter), and the words flow out of my fingers nearly as fast as I can think of them (and faster if I have to think about how to put my thoughts into words). I do have a love-hate relationship with handwriting, because of "high error rate", which is much less of a problem with typing (nowadays).
I’m a strong believer that handwriting will probably disappear entirely in the next 10-20 years. Likely loads of typing will eventually disappear also. You could probably make arguments that we have lost a skill or that previous skills stimulated particular parts of your brain, however we a skill is no longer required we just won’t use it anymore and our efforts will be focused elsewhere
If handwriting truly improved memory, I would be better able to remember videos I watched. And Reddit stories I read. I do not remember any better than typing it down in my notes. I do enjoy writing to try and improve one aspect of my life that I feel needs improvements.
Thank you Sabine, for always talking about both the study and even your own thoughts on these studies. If they wanted to do learn more about this, people would put more effort into focusing on the memory aspects and doing more studies in handwriting vs typing. I wouldn’t mind more studies on more things. Why not. And let’s hope the study is being paid for not by a company that sells pens, pencils, erasers and paper or staples. lol could you imagine if companies paid for these studies to make handwriting look more romantic and better for the mind and memory and even more warranted over typing. But then there’s just never enough studies for this. I do in fact love journaling. I do find it more romantic to write down my love letters in my journal rather than just my phones notes. There’s a charm and aspect to it that makes me very happy. Also, I’m adding this to my writing playlist! Thanks Sabine❤ sorry if my comment is scrambled and looks and sounds kind of smooth brained😅
Yes. It's faster. I have a 2 in 1 with pen support for that purpose. For quick sketches it's still pencil and paper.
My handwriting is highly legible, as I've worked out a mix of block and cursive over the years that's fast and legible.
There are older studies on how to teach. People are visual, auditory, or kinetic learners. When you teach with all three methods you reach more students. You show them , you tell them, you let them have tactile experience. Writing is the hands on experience.
The handwritten notes thing was pretty well known among my friend group going through college. Typing it out, we could all type so fast that we could literally annotate entire lectures, where with hand writing it's slow enough that you're forced to do things like outlines.
Even when doing outlines on the laptop your brain can kind of turn off as you copy things down. Not the case when writing by hand. You're forced to engage more directly with the words or concepts in order to pair things down and get things written before the topic moves on.
And when doing review, reading hand written notes is more likely to force the student to think back and remember what the topic is about and the reasoning behind why they wrote down what they did.
Not surprising at all to hear that there's at least evidence for this being beneficial.
Our brain is like our muscles. The more we exercise it, the better and healthier it is.
I have notebooks filled with pages of handwriting. Most of it is directly copied from various physics or math books as the act of wiring each sentence down by hand in order to learn, follow and then remember. Just reading the book is not enough and especially with maths as each idea usually builds directly upon what has gone before.
I suspect any unique output is more salient in our memory. If you don't write, writing will help your memory. If you never type, typing will help. Requiring more parts of your brain to do something is not the same as 'more useful' activation. Siezures are not waves of genius.
I have a few...quirks both when writing and when typing. I don't know how to explain it... When writing, I will often go over a letter multiple times, for example, if the pen or pencil didn't quite make a dark enough line or the ink skipped a part. No, I can't just fill in that part alone because it looks different form the rest like it's out of place and I'll be compelled to go over it again anyway.
When typing, there will be times when I will spam 1 key and the backspace key over and over, usually the S key (I have 3 keyboards where the S key is worn down entirely lol) and I really don't know why. Something about it not feeling right or not feeling even somehow or something, I don't know, I don't get it. Other times I'll back and forth with 3 keys (backspace between each to avoid a large spam to delete later) like E, R, T because I just recently used E & T but R was underused but it's inbetween so it has to be used also. And of course I'll pound 1 key now and then, also because it feels like it's underused or something, I don't f'n know.
I can type really fast but it takes me a lot longer to type because of this nonsensical garbage. The S key also really often gets typed at the end of a word (or in between) and of course spammed and deleted.
I don't get it. It bothers me but like, I can't not do it, it causes anxiety and makes the problem worse if I try to ignore it. Would love to know what the problem is.
I mention both because they seem, to me, to be similar reasons/problems for both writing and typing. You mentioned differences between the 2 actions and how they work with our brains - these quirks feel connected in my brain.
And yes, using digital paper I still experience the same quirk. And if there's no feedback at all like my phone is on silent and no vibration...I can't remember if the problem is worse or better, but it's hard to type (text) that way because there's no feedback. This is maddening.
Why ppl would recognize letters after handwriting them vs typing them: when writing, you see the letters as a series of parts; when typing, you see the letters as an uninterrupted whole. So, a B versus a D, when learned via handwriting, you know there is another line in the middle of that D shape, changing it into a B.
I received my BA in 81', my major History. All our exams involved writing out our analysis of the questions posed. Constant writing for two hours. No notes or books allowed. Just two hours and pencil and blue little notebook. Now that seems almost ancient. Still my house is littered with notebooks of, loose our bound, or notes on various things. I find it indespensible.
Then the sponsored feature here might be a good birhtday present for you.
this video gets a thumbs up just for the reMarkable ad. Reminds me of the notepads the kids used on the BSG spinoff Caprica.
Hi Sab, good content as always, All my notes are by pen on paper as its slower and more thought full , although the spelling is dreadful . Im sure kids goto is a keyboard for smell checker funktion .Lol
it's the same cognitive enhancement that occurs when students have to explain concepts and methods to each other, rather than just listening to the teacher. perhaps many have also noticed how the amount we write in school has drastically decreased, as we went from blank notebooks to workbooks and handouts that are already mostly complete and students only have to fill in the blanks, and sometimes not even that.