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The role of working memory abilities in lecture note-taking

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Abstract

The utility of lecture note-taking is well documented, with most studies dedicated to understanding how to maximize the benefits of note-taking. Far less attention has been focused on understanding the cognitive processes that underlie note-taking and how the benefits of note-taking vary with individual differences in the ability to carry out these processes. One cognitive ability that has been hypothesized to be important for note-taking is working memory: the ability to temporarily store and manipulate limited amounts of information. The current paper addresses why working memory is important for lecture note-taking and reviews studies that have examined the relationship between individual differences in working memory abilities and individual differences in note-taking. There is currently a lack of consensus regarding the nature of this relationship, and this review addresses possible reasons for what may appear to be inconsistent results, including differences in how working memory and its role in note-taking have been assessed, note-taking modality, and individual differences in note-taking strategy.

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... En möjlig förklaring till inkodningsfunktionens relativt svaga effekt är att antecknande är tungt belastande för kognitiva funktioner som till exempel uppmärksamhet och arbetsminne (Bui & Myerson, 2014). Att anteckna under en föreläsning är en komplex process i flera steg. ...
... Eftersom forskning om antecknande fortfarande till stor del pekar i olika riktningar och vad som är mest effektivt beror på flera kontextuella faktorer går det sannolikt inte att göra några rekommendationer som passar alla. Viktigare blir i stället att skolan informerar om olika tekniker och strategier, samt deras respektive för-och nackdelar, så att den enskilde kan göra informerade val (Bui & Myerson, 2014). ...
... De första fyra avsnitten besvarar utförligt studiens två första frågeställningar, det vill säga hur elever för gymnasieanteckningar samt hur de motiverar sina strategier. En inledande rubrik "elevers anteckningspraktiker" redogör för i vilken grad (Morehead, Dunlosky, Rawson m.fl., 2019) och varför elever väljer att anteckna (Kiewra, 1985a) eller inte anteckna (Bui & Myerson, 2014). Avsnittet "digitaliseringens effekter på elevers anteckningspraktiker" utgår från forskning av bland annat Mueller och Oppenheimer (2014) och besvarar frågan om vilket medium eleverna föredrar, medan avsnittet "elevers specifka anteckningspraktiker" följer Van Meter m.fl. (1994) och argumenterar för att elever kan ha en medveten strategi trots skiftande anteckningspraktiker. Armbruster (2009) redogör för att det finns mer eller mindre effektiva sätt att använda sina anteckningar, i avsnittet "hur elever använder sina anteckningar" undersöks elevers faktiska praktiker och deras underliggande motiv. ...
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Studies have shown that lecture note-taking is very effective for students’ learning. Research on Swedish pupils, however, is scant. The aim of the present study was to explore note-taking practices in Swedish upper secondary school and examine whether the school supports students in their practice. A survey with both closed-ended and open-ended questions was administered to 120 pupils from two schools in Västra Götaland County. Most pupils reported taking notes during lectures and doing so for mainly two reasons: to learn the material and to study the notes for future exams. However, only 15 % of participants had received guidance on how to take notes during their school years. A metacognitive framework is applied in interpreting the results. Whether a note-taking practice can be considered metacognitive depends on the underlying motives for choosing that strategy. A well-chosen strategy seems dependent on contextual and individual circumstances. It is suggested that pupils be taught both the advantages and the disadvantages of different note-taking practices, so that they can evaluate different strategies for themselves.
... Some researchers have ascribed why the encoding effect has not been remarkable to the quality or method of notetaking (Bretzing & Kulhavy, 1979;Kiewra, 1989) or to the problem of how learning outcomes are measured (Lahtinen et al., 1997). In contrast, other researchers have argued that the encoding effect should be more heavily scrutinized since it relates to the core cognitive processes of notetaking and seems to be a prerequisite for the external storage function in most actual note-taking circumstances (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Kiewra, Dubois, & Christensen, 1989). Note-taking strategies, one of the representative aspects of the encoding effect, have been examined by some researchers. ...
... Cognitive features during note-taking have more to do with the encoding effect than the external storage. As Bui and Myerson (2014) have pointed out, the most important cognitive features of note-taking have a close relation to working memory abilities. The term working memory can be used to refer to the manipulation of information as well as its temporary storage (Baddeley, 2012, p. 4). ...
... This suggests the possibility that note-taking does not always guarantee positive effects. Instead, students' note-taking must become more efficient since note-taking is regarded as a complex multitasking activity that makes significant demands on the working memory (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Piolat, Olive, & Kellogg, 2005). Thus, there is the possibility that too many words in notes may interfere with the encoding effect, unlike markers, as note-taking processes require additional cognitive effort aside from understanding lecture content and will thus need to become more precise and compact (Piolat, et al., 2005). ...
Article
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This paper addresses the effects of access to slide copies during lectures using PowerPoint® for undergraduate students on their learning outcomes depending on the quantity of notes they take and immediate vs. delayed testing. Seventy-one students repeatedly participated in the following six lecture conditions: accessibility to slides (full, partial, and no slide copy) × memory term (immediate and delayed test). Thus, the present study adopted a 3 × 2 within-subjects design with two note-taking covariates (the quantity of words and markers in notes). A mixed-effects model and counterbalancing method were applied to control idiosyncrasies and order effects caused by repeated measurement. The results revealed that accessibility to slide copies and students' note-taking predicted their learning outcomes. The effects of no slide copy were significant in both short- and long-term memory conditions as compared to those of access to full and partial copies. Access to full and partial slide copies did not have significantly different results. However, according to the interaction results between accessibility and memory term, the long-term encoding effect was assumed for the partial slide copy condition. Regarding note-taking variables, students’ performance was considerably impacted by the number of markers but none of the number of words. The findings suggest educational implications for the way slides are prepared and provided and the way students take notes during slide-based lectures from a perspective of writing-to-learn. PDF file can be downloaded for free till June 13, 2018 by clicking the following 'Share Link' https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1WxaK1HucdE8Am
... The provided note-taking strategy was further divided into linear learning strategy, generative learning strategy, and unreported. Although previous research (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Kobayashi, 2005;Siegel, 2022) commonly categorized note taking into "verbatim" and "generative" methods, this study employed the terms "linear" and "generative" to describe two distinct types of note-taking strategies. Following Ponce and Mayer (2014), a linear learning strategy involves processing information in the same structure presented in material, whereas a generative learning strategy involves selecting and reorganizing information to build a coherent structure. ...
... Of the treatment moderator variables, the analyses revealed that learning gains were larger for note taking with mixed ( g = 0.84) and written input ( g = 0.85) than with aural ( g = 0.27) input. Smaller effects of note taking on listening might be expected because it is difficult for learners to adjust their focus and organize their notes due to time pressure (Bui & Myerson, 2014). The analyses also revealed that the effectiveness of note taking is more pronounced when using nonacademic input ( g = 0.64) than when using academic input ( g = 0.51), suggesting that students can derive greater benefits from their notetaking efforts by incorporating nonacademic materials into their learning process. ...
Article
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There has been increasing interest in the effects of note taking in second language (L2) research. However, no meta-analysis has been conducted to examine the relationship between note taking and learning through exposure to L2 input. We retrieved 28 effect sizes from 21 studies ( N = 1992) to explore the overall effects of note taking as well as to examine the extent to which the effectiveness of note taking is likely to vary as a function of a set of potential moderators (i.e., learner variables, treatment variables, note-taking features, learning target, and measurement type). Results revealed that note taking had a small to medium positive overall effect on learning through exposure to L2 input ( g = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.24–0.88). Subsequent moderator analyses revealed that variability in the size of note-taking effects across studies was explained by learner variables (context, region, orthographic scripts, institutional level), treatment variables (mode of input, material type), note-taking features (note-taking behavior, number of note-taking sessions, provision and type of note-taking strategy instruction, total length of instruction, opportunity to review notes), learning target, and measurement type. Based on the obtained findings, teachers are recommended to incorporate note taking in L2 classrooms. Pedagogical suggestions and directions for future research are also provided.
... Other researchers have examined listening techniques relevant to business contexts (Bodie et al., 2013;Flynn et al., 2008;Weger et al., 2010); and the importance of need for cognition on a person's preferred listening style (Worthington, 2008). Bui and Myerson (2014) reported that note taking while listening improved retrieved memory compared to those who did not due to enhanced working memory and encoding processes. Bui and McDaniel (2015) found note-taking using outlines and illustrative diagrams can help students learn more while listening to lectures. ...
... Although students receive a great deal of information via interpersonal interactions, lectures, and presentations, they receive surprisingly little training in how to listen well, or techniques designed to help them overcome barriers to listening. The study findings contribute to the field of education by identifying specific techniques that students can use alongside notetaking and mindfulness tools (Bui & McDaniel, 2015;Bui & Myerson, 2014;Goh, 2012;Murphy, 2020). ...
Article
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Listening is a fundamental element of good marketing. Marketing relies on clear, effective, interactive communication: between the firm and customers, between the firm and suppliers, and within the firm among employees. While prior research has emphasized the crucial importance of good listening skills to individual and organizational performance, only a few listening techniques have been assessed empirically, particularly under difficult listening circumstances. This paper fills that gap in the literature by building on prior conceptual and exploratory work on listening, identifying 3 listening techniques, and empirically testing the effectiveness of the techniques using a multinational sample. Results show that listening techniques improve recall, but the most effective technique depends on the countries' level of individualism.
... Likewise, teachers may encourage students to adopt certain formats based on their own preference. Even the text type or lecture content can influence formatting choices, as Bui and Myerson (2014) point out in their research comparing the outline format and illustrative diagrams. ...
... They found that females recorded significantly more information in notes and did better on written measures of recall than their male counterparts. The relationship between working memory and lecture notetaking was further explored by Bui and Myerson (2014). In my view, consideration of individual factors like gender or variations in working memory are informed by class observations, discussions with practising teachers, and reviews of notetaking materials, are rarely acknowledged in L2 EAP teaching. ...
Article
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This paper reviews and discusses research on notetaking during academic listening conducted in both first (L1) and second language (L2) contexts and is organized into two main categories: research that is beginning to impact English for academic purposes (EAP) classrooms and that which has yet to make an impact on EAP, but should. Overall, I assert that, while some relevant research on notetaking is reaching EAP classrooms, there is an abundance of knowledge from L1 contexts as well as a number of unexplored areas that have potential to improve instruction and student ability. Throughout the paper, I hypothesize why certain research findings are not being applied in classrooms. In concluding, I provide suggestions for how researchers and teachers might further support colleagues in applying research findings.
... Other researchers have examined listening techniques relevant to business contexts (Bodie et al., 2013;Flynn et al., 2008;Weger et al., 2010); and the importance of need for cognition on a person's preferred listening style (Worthington, 2008). Bui and Myerson (2014) reported that note taking while listening improved retrieved memory compared to those who did not due to enhanced working memory and encoding processes. Bui and McDaniel (2015) found note-taking using outlines and illustrative diagrams can help students learn more while listening to lectures. ...
... Although students receive a great deal of information via interpersonal interactions, lectures, and presentations, they receive surprisingly little training in how to listen well, or techniques designed to help them overcome barriers to listening. The study findings contribute to the field of education by identifying specific techniques that students can use alongside notetaking and mindfulness tools (Bui & McDaniel, 2015;Bui & Myerson, 2014;Goh, 2012;Murphy, 2020). ...
Article
Full-text available
Listening is a fundamental element of good marketing. Marketing relies on clear, effective, interactive communication: between the firm and customers, between the firm and suppliers, and within the firm among employees. While prior research has emphasized the crucial importance of good listening skills to individual and organizational performance, only a few listening techniques have been assessed empirically, particularly under difficult listening circumstances. This paper fills that gap in the literature by building on prior conceptual and exploratory work on listening, identifying 3 listening techniques, and empirically testing the effectiveness of the techniques using a multinational sample. Results show that listening techniques improve recall, but the most effective technique depends on the countries’ level of individualism.
... Another concern regarding note-taking is the cognitive effort it requires during the interview. Note-taking may be extremely mentally demanding (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Jansen et al., 2017;Piolat et al., 2005), and in the case of forensic interviewers, the cognitive demands of note-taking, in addition to the emotionally taxing content of children's disclosures, may play a role in dissuading interviewers from adopting note-taking practices. Moreover, note-taking may appear trivial or as an additional burden on the interviewer when they are already attempting to concentrate, attend to, and also consolidate the emotional information they are receiving. ...
... Arguments against note-taking include the potential for the task to be too mentally demanding (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Jansen et al., 2017;Piolat et al., 2005), which is made more taxing on interviewers given the sensitive and emotionally demanding nature of their interviews (Fansher et al., 2020;Starcher & Stolzenberg, 2020). Furthermore, many interviewers fear the potential impact note-taking has on rapport building during the interview (Goldbloom, 2011;Mills, 2012), as well as the potential for suggestion through note-taking behaviors (Gottlieb et al., 1979). ...
Article
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The disclosure process for children who have experienced maltreatment is often difficult. In an effort to support children in their disclosures, interviewers have increasingly turned to empirically-based interview protocols (i.e., questioning strategies) that both decrease the suggestibility of questions while also increasing the productivity of children’s statements. Despite efforts to improve the structure of forensic interviews, interviewing support tools, such as note-taking, have received less empirical attention. To date, research examining interviewers’ notes has primarily focused on the accuracy of such records for evidentiary reasons. Yet, note-taking may serve other purposes; for instance, the process of note-taking may increase the accuracy of interviewers’ questions (i.e., use of child’s words) and memory (i.e., follow-up questions and themes) throughout the interview. In the current review, we describe the limited forensic note-taking literature, as well as the potential strengths and weaknesses of note-taking during forensic interviews with children. We end by suggesting potential avenues of research to assist with the creation of practical guidelines for the use of notes during forensic interviews.
... However, the evidence from educational psychology provides mixed results. Bui and Myerson [14] summarise the previous studies that have examined the association between short-term memory capacity, working memory capacity, information processing ability, and note taking. Before we review the relevant literature, we briefly define short-term and working memory. ...
... Furthermore, others have found a significant association between lecture note taking and working memory when students were asked to organise their notes but not when they were asked to record everything that was said [19]. This suggests that note taking strategies may affect the association between working memory and note taking [14]. Whilst we did not examine jurors' note taking strategies, it may be that working memory capacity was not significantly associated with note taking in the present study as we did not ask jurors to organise their notes and they were simply writing everything down (in a pure transcription style). ...
Article
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Although note taking during trials is known to enhance jurors’ recall of trial evidence, little is known about whether individual differences in note taking underpin this effect. Individual differences in handwriting speed, working memory, and attention may influence juror’s note taking. This, in turn, may influence their recall. It may also be the case that if jurors note down and recall more incriminating than non-incriminating evidence (or vice versa), then this may predict their verdict. Three studies examined the associations between the aforementioned individual differences, the amount of critical evidence jurors noted down during a trial, the amount of critical evidence they recalled, and the verdicts they reached. Participants had their handwriting speed, short-term memory, working memory, and attention assessed. They then watched a trial video (some took notes), reached a verdict, and recalled as much trial information as possible. We found that jurors with faster handwriting speed (Study 1), higher short-term memory capacity (Study 2), and higher sustained attention capacity (Study 3) noted down, and later recalled, the most critical trial evidence. However, working memory storage capacity, information processing ability (Study 2) and divided attention (Study 3) were not associated with note taking or recall. Further, the type of critical evidence jurors predominantly recalled predicted their verdicts, such that jurors who recalled more incriminating evidence were more likely to reach a guilty verdict, and jurors who recalled more non-incriminating evidence were less likely to do so. The implications of these findings are discussed.
... As the process of note-taking is associated with action words and phrases such as capture, recall (Piolat et al. 2004), learn, remember (Anderson and Armbruster 1986), pay attention, organise, record, and making understandable and legible notes (Bui and Myerson 2014), this article focuses on the affordances of mobile devices that make it possible for students to take cognitively demanding notes. For this study, Baffordances of mobile devices^refers to those qualities and properties that mobile devices offer to enable cognitively demanding note-taking, while Bcognitively demanding note-takingr efers to the cognitive processes that take place during note-taking, and not to the notetaking itself that is cognitively demanding. ...
... University students, and first-year students in particular, have been battling with the question of how to capture and recall the flow of information in traditional lecture periods for many years (Piolat et al. 2004). This may be because students who take notes need to pay attention, organise the information, and then record it in an understandable manner before it is forgotten (Bui and Myerson 2014). ...
Article
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Note-taking is one of the more common and ever-present learning activities that form an important part of all students’ daily lives. The potential of using technology to enhance note-taking activities has recently come under the spotlight. However, while mobile technologies may be applauded for their mobility and the value they can add to students’ learning experience, they could easily become a distracting factor, rather than the improvement they were intended to be. In this qualitative study, eight students volunteered to experiment with various mobile devices for a period of 6 weeks, and to share their experiences in a series of five group interviews. Information found in the literature about note-taking, combined with the students’ feedback on their experiences, provided insight into how students record and process information. The affordances of mobile devices for cognitively demanding note-taking that are regarded as useful in a teaching and learning environment were also discussed in the group interviews. All the students agreed that they would not commit themselves to using only one application or device. They emphasised the fact that they used more than one device, and in some cases multiple applications on those devices, depending on their educational setting. This article gives students, lecturers and software developers insight into the affordances of mobile devices and note-taking applications (apps), in order to support cognitively demanding note-taking.
... These studies consistently show that the magnitude of the encoding effect partly depends on individual differences in working memory ability. These individual studies are described and integrated clearly in a review by Bui and Myerson (2014), and we refer the interested reader to this review article. Overall it can be concluded that cognitive ability is an important moderator for the relationship between note-taking and memory for lecture content. ...
... Other researchers have already recently implied the mediating role of cognitive load on the relationship between note-taking and memory (Liuqing Ruan, Zhiyong Xiong, Lijun Jiang, & Xue Zhou, 2015;Olive & Barbier, 2017;Svinicki, 2017) In order to be able to discuss the effects of note-taking on experienced cognitive effort in much greater detail, we distinguish five processes involved in note-taking (based on Bui & Myerson, 2014;Kiewra, 1987;Peverly, 2006). When taking notes, a note-taker must (1) comprehend the lecture material, (2) identify key points, (3) link the material to prior knowledge and prior notes, (4) paraphrase or summarise, and (5) transform to written form (either by hand or by typing). ...
Article
Students frequently engage in note-taking to improve the amount of information they remember from lectures. One beneficial effect of note-taking is known as the encoding effect, which refers to deeper processing of information as a consequence of taking notes. This review consists of two parts. In the first part, four lines of research on the encoding effect are summarized: 1) manipulation of the lecture material, 2) manipulation of the method of note-taking, 3) the importance of individual differences, and 4) the testing procedure used in the empirical studies. This review highlights the fragmented nature of the current literature. In the second part of this review five forms of cognitive load that are induced by note-taking are distinguished. Cognitive load theory is used to integrate the divergent results in the literature. Based on the review, it is concluded that cognitive load theory provides a useful framework for future theory development and experimental work.
... In Experiment 2, due to some suggestion that pre-existing familiarity was influencing the effect, we removed the contribution of pre-experiment familiarity with the study material entirely by composing our own novel to-be-learned terms and definitions. Lastly, in Experiment 3, we sought to determine whether memory performance as a result of drawing was on par with that achieved from paraphrasing, a more broadly used elaborative encoding strategy (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Bui, Myerson, & Hale, 2013;Kiewra, 1985;Kiewra & Benton, 1988;Williams & Eggert, 2002). ...
... Paraphrasing is a clear target for our research, as this type of elaborative encoding strategy has been emphasized in previous studies on note-taking (Bui & Myerson, 2014). In one relevant study, participants were instructed to take notes either by simply transcribing the material (akin to our 'write' condition), or by taking organized notes, which meant they were to paraphrase the information presented. ...
Article
Traditionally, students adopt the strategy of taking written notes when attending a class or learning from a textbook in educational settings. Informed by previous work showing that learning by doing improves memory performance, we examined whether drawing to-be-remembered definitions from university textbooks would improve later memory, relative to a more typical strategy of rote transcription. Participants were asked to either write out the definition, or to draw a picture representative of the definition. Results indicated that drawing, relative to verbatim writing, conferred a reliable memorial benefit that was robust, even when participants' preexisting familiarity with the terms was included as a covariate (in Experiment 1) or when the to-be-remembered terms and definitions were fictitious, thus removing the influence of familiarity (in Experiment 2). We reasoned that drawing likely facilitates retention at least in part because at encoding, participants must retain and elaborate upon information regarding the meaning of the definition, to translate it into a new form (a picture). This is not the case when participants write out the definitions verbatim. In Experiment 3 we showed that paraphrasing during encoding, which, like drawing and in contrast with verbatim writing, requires self-generated elaboration, led to memory performance that was comparable to drawing. Taken together, results suggest that drawing is a powerful tool which improves memory, and that drawing produces a similar level of retention as does paraphrasing. This suggests that elaborative encoding plays a critical role in the memorial benefit that drawing confers to memory for definitions of academic terms.
... A modest-and mixed-literature also suggests that cognitive and motivational factors may affect note-taking quality and benefits (for a review, see Bui & Myerson, 2014). WMC, for example, sometimes predicts students' note quality (e.g., Bui, Myerson, & Hale, 2013;Hadwin, Kirby, & Woodhouse, 1999;Kiewra & Benton, 1988;McIntyre, 1992), but sometimes does not (e.g., Bui et al., 2013;Peverly et al., 2007Peverly et al., , 2013, perhaps because WMC effects depend on notetaking strategies (Bui & Myerson, 2014). ...
... A modest-and mixed-literature also suggests that cognitive and motivational factors may affect note-taking quality and benefits (for a review, see Bui & Myerson, 2014). WMC, for example, sometimes predicts students' note quality (e.g., Bui, Myerson, & Hale, 2013;Hadwin, Kirby, & Woodhouse, 1999;Kiewra & Benton, 1988;McIntyre, 1992), but sometimes does not (e.g., Bui et al., 2013;Peverly et al., 2007Peverly et al., , 2013, perhaps because WMC effects depend on notetaking strategies (Bui & Myerson, 2014). ...
Article
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A combined experimental–correlational study with a diverse sample (N = 182) from two research sites tested a set of five a priori hypotheses about mind wandering and learning, using a realistic video lecture on introductory statistics. Specifically, the study examined whether students’ vulnerability to mind wandering during the lecture would predict learning from, and situational interest in, the video, and also whether longhand note-taking would help reduce mind wandering, at least for some students. Half the subjects took notes during the video, and all were subsequently tested on lecture content without notes. Regression and mediation analyses indicated that: (a) several individual-differences variables (e.g., pretest score, prior math interest, classroom media multitasking habits) uniquely predicted in-lecture mind wandering frequency; (b) although the note-taking manipulation did not reduce mind wandering at the group level, note-taking still reduced mind wandering for some individuals (i.e., those with lower prior knowledge and those who took notes of high quality and quantity); (c) mind wandering uniquely predicted both learning (posttest) and situational interest outcomes above and beyond all other individual-differences variables; (d) moreover, mind wandering significantly mediated the effects of several individual differences; and, finally, (e) not all types of mind wandering were problematic—in fact, off-task reflections about lecture-related topics positively predicted learning. These results, which were generally robust across the two sites, suggest that educationally focused cognitive research may benefit from considering attentional processes during learning as well as cognitive and noncognitive individual differences that affect attention and learning.
... These techniques are often referred to as learning strategies. Relevant to the current study, like drawing, paraphrasing is an effective strategy for notetaking (Bui et al., 2013;Bui & Myerson, 2014;Kiewra, 1985;Kiewra & Benton, 1988;Williams & Eggert, 2002). When paraphrasing, the user must rephrase, elaborate upon, and transform content into their own words (Best et al., 2005;Graesser et al., 1994;Magliano et al., 2011). ...
Article
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Previous work suggests that similar cognitive processes contribute to memory and comprehension. This is unsurprising as both begin with a common process: encoding. Despite this, the investigation of techniques that benefit memory and comprehension has proceeded separately. In the current study, we compared the robust memory techniques of production and drawing to a similarly effective comprehension strategy known as paraphrasing. Depending on the group, participants were asked to either engage in one of the encoding types (read aloud, draw, or paraphrase) or to silently read 20 term–definition pairs (randomly intermixed and counterbalanced). The encoding techniques of drawing and paraphrasing resulted in better performance on a multiple-choice test of concept comprehension, relative to silently reading. By contrast, reading aloud at encoding did not lead to any benefit relative to silently reading. The results suggest that techniques that invoke transformation of the to-be-remembered text into another format, be it into a picture (drawing) or personally relevant summary (paraphrasing), are particularly effective at improving comprehension. By contrast, encoding techniques that mainly provide a perceptual repetition (production and silent reading) are less effective.
... The true value of notetaking is more in the review of notes than in their recording [23]. Other researchers have also found the activity of notetaking cognitively demanding and sometimes ineffective when recorded notes are not reviewed [24]. Review makes the external storage function of electronic notes realized. ...
Article
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This study systematically probed the relationship between the medium of taking classroom notes (virtual variable, electronic notetaking = 0 vs. traditional notetaking = 1), the word count in each medium, as well as the review process, and the students’ delayed learning effect for each notetaking approach. Data were collected from 189 college students, with the influence of gender and prior knowledge being controlled. The conclusions were as follows. (1) The notetaking medium was positively correlated with delayed test scores, irrespective of whether reviews were allowed or not. (2) The mediating role of word count between notetaking medium and delayed test scores was moderated by review. That is, when reviews were allowed, a significant correlation was found between the medium of the notes and the delayed test scores; when reviews were not allowed, the mediating effect of word count was not significant.
... Researchers have identified two basic functions of note-taking that could demonstrate its advantage in improving learning and performance: the encoding function and the external storage function as it can be used to be reviewed later (Di Vesta & Gray, 1973, Williams & Eggert, 2002. They claim that note-taking stimulates learning by drawing learner's attention to instructional content (Di Vesta & Gray, 1973;Einstein et al., 1985), facilitating translation of instructional content into text and one's own comprehension (Boch & Piolat, 2005), allowing for better development of deep-level mental representations of content (Bui & Myerson, 2014), and enabling learners to connect new information with things they know (Einstein et al., 1985). The study by Jiang et al aimed to examine how students use the open-ended learning environment's note-taking feature, with a particular emphasis on whether the volume of note-taking, content of middle school students' notes and reassessing behavior are associated with the success of their science learning in the environment. ...
Article
Note-taking is a significant part of students’ academics because it improves their learning and helps them with their memory. Writing effective notes that are concise helps students to understand the information easier and allows them to retrieve information efficiently. Note-taking allows students to organize information and to enhance their cognitive processing. There are many different ways to structure notes such as intentional free notes, outline notes, and matrix notes. Therefore, it is important that students find their own structured way to write effective notes during lecture. The purpose of this research study is to investigate whether effective-note-taking improves the quality of learning and memory retrieval for students. A survey was administered and collected from 200 students of the City College of New York during fall of 2022. The survey questionnaire included Likert-type and open-ended questions, which was used to examine the students’ thoughts, perceptions and their views about the benefits of effective note-taking. The data suggest that student’s ability to note-taking and their method of note-taking is positively correlated with their GPA and performance. Furthermore, most students believe note-taking is vital to have a higher academic performance. Furthermore, the data suggests that the students’ perceptions is that effective note-taking helps them with their memory and information retrieval.
... Note-taking is widely recognized as a critical strategy that exhibits a positive correlation with academic achievement among college students [18,23,35]. The process of taking notes aids students in learning course material by enhancing their understanding of lecture content and improving their ability to recall information later [7,8,20]. As Kobayashi [37] aptly states, "It increases class attention, active engagement in classes, clarification, and paraphrasing of confusing points and their performance." ...
... While the external storage potential of producing and reviewing notes is clearly beneficial for learning (Jansen et al., 2017), the question of whether writing as such supports improved memory recall through stronger encoding is less clear. On the one hand, there is evidence in favor of the commonly held view that the act of writing entails the learner to be alert, focused, and active, which in and of itself might support deepened encoding compared to listening (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Mangen & Velay, 2010;Mangen et al., 2015). Moreover, in research on vocabulary learning, a so-called orthography effect has been observed (Ricketts et al., 2009), meaning that the presence of a word's written form boosts learning of that vocabulary item (Ricketts et al., 2009). ...
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Background Prior research has shown that memory for action sentences is stronger when stimuli are enacted during encoding than simply listened to: the so‐called enactment effect. The goal of the present study was to explore how writing during encoding—through handwriting and through keyboarding—fares compared with enacting, in supporting memory recall. Methods One hundred Norwegian high school students (64 girls, 36 boys) aged 16–21 years (M = 17.1) participated in the study. Four lists of verb–noun sentences with 12 sentences in each list were presented in four encoding conditions: (i) motor enactment, (ii) verbal listening, (iii) handwriting, and (iv) keyboarding. Results Results revealed a significant main effect of encoding condition, with the best memory gained in the enactment condition. Regarding writing, results showed that handwriting and keyboarding during encoding produced the lowest recall in comparison with the enactment and verbal listening conditions. Conclusion These results thus provide additional support for the enactment effect. While there has been much discussion on the relative benefits of handwriting versus keyboarding on student performance, both seemed to be equally poor strategies for the particular learning task explored here, potentially through increased cognitive load.
... Given that the goal was to broadly investigate and describe the effect of four variables on saturation concentration, the notepad may have been useful to record observations or trends for each of the variables as they were being investigated. Both the attention paid to the trends in the science condition, as explicitly directed in the task, and the use of the notepad to record observations likely strengthened students' mental representations of the results, helped them identify the underlying patterns, and reduced the cognitive load by storing the information in the notepad, therefore leading to better posttest performance (Armbruster, 2009;Bauer, 2008;Bui & Myerson, 2014;Kiewra, 1989;Peverly et al., 2007;Slotte & Lonka, 1999). This was consistent with the positive relationships between note-taking and note-reviewing behaviors with science inquiry success found in previous studies . ...
Article
The interrelationship of science and engineering and the recent inclusion of engineering in K‐12 science standards have promoted the incorporation of engineering design in science classrooms. However, empirical studies on the impacts of engineering design on science learning show mixed findings and indicate that factors such as the complexity of design tasks, a lack of connections between design tasks and the underlying science concepts, and the limited experience with engineering among science teachers can influence learning gains from design activities. One useful approach for addressing these challenges is through the use of technologies such as interactive simulations, which have become increasingly prevalent in STEM education. In the present study, we used a simulation to investigate the effects of task context (science vs. engineering) on students' investigation behaviors and their understanding of science concepts. Furthermore, considering the relative novelty and complexity of an engineering context to many students, we examined how structuring students' responses in the engineering context affects their behaviors and learning. A total of 349 high school students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: science, structured engineering, and unstructured engineering. In the science condition, students used the simulation to investigate the effects of four variables on the saturation concentration of solutions. Using the same simulation, students in the structured and unstructured engineering conditions were directed to recommend the optimal variable values that meet a set of given constraints and maximize the saturation concentration for a commercial product. The only difference between the two engineering conditions was whether structuring was provided in the response fields presented to students as they entered responses for the target variables. Results suggested that the engineering context stimulated students to engage in more comprehensive investigation behaviors as compared to the science context. In contrast, students in the science condition exhibited more systematic behaviors. However, the increased comprehensiveness of behaviors in the engineering conditions did not translate into significantly greater learning of the science content in these conditions, indicating that students might have focused on the surface features associated with the engineering goal without making deep connections between the two domains. Furthermore, structuring students' responses within an engineering context as used in the current study did not lead to significant differences in investigation behaviors or learning outcomes.
... Some studies on notetaking focused on interpreting recall and the ways in which information was organized and hierarchically processed (e.g., Kiewra & Frank, 1988;Kiewra & Mayer, 1991), while others have discussed the potential for notetaking to hinder comprehension and recall when working in distracting environments (e.g., Lin & Bigenho, 2011) or explored which types of notes are most effective in aiding recall (Olive & Barbier, 2017). Still others examine the role of working memory in relation to notetaking during lectures, with recent reviews suggesting inconsistent findings across the literature as it relates to notetaking modality, quality, and individual traits (Bui & Myerson, 2014). ...
Article
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Digital pen technologies have enabled new forms of interpreting and provided new ways to train interpreting students in consecutive interpreting; however, digital pens also provide an opportunity to collect interpreting process data that can serve as a proxy for cognitive behavior. This article examines the extant literature on notetaking and cognition to advocate for using digital pens to document the notetaking process and describes several ways in which this notetaking data can be analyzed to understand interpreter behavior. In addition, several potential research avenues are outlined to enhance the methodological tools available to undertake interpreting process research in dialogue and consecutive interpreting.
... Tablets are unique in their potential for software applications that provide note-taking tools, e-books, flashcards, videos, images, and practice tests [5]. Studies have shown an increase in performance with the use of tablet-based applications designed to teach anatomy [6]. However, research on the benefits of tablet-based note-taking is scarce. ...
Article
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Purpose: Technological advances are changing how students approach learning. The traditional note-taking methods of longhand writing have been supplemented and replaced by tablets, smartphones, and laptop note-taking. It has been theorized that writing notes by hand requires more complex cognitive processes and may lead to better retention. However, few studies have investigated the use of tablet-based note-taking, which allows the incorporation of typing, drawing, highlights, and media. We therefore sought to confirm the hypothesis that tablet-based note-taking would lead to equivalent or better recall as compared to written note-taking. Methods: We allocated 68 students into longhand, laptop, or tablet note-taking groups, and they watched and took notes on a presentation on which they were assessed for factual and conceptual recall. A second short distractor video was shown, followed by a 30-minute assessment at the University of California, Irvine campus, over a single day period in August 2018. Notes were analyzed for content, supplemental drawings, and other media sources. Results: No significant difference was found in the factual or conceptual recall scores for tablet, laptop, and handwritten note-taking (P=0.61). The median word count was 131.5 for tablets, 121.0 for handwriting, and 297.0 for laptops (P=0.01). The tablet group had the highest presence of drawing, highlighting, and other media/tools. Conclusion: In light of conflicting research regarding the best note-taking method, our study showed that longhand note-taking is not superior to tablet or laptop note-taking. This suggests students should be encouraged to pick the note-taking method that appeals most to them. In the future, traditional note-taking may be replaced or supplemented with digital technologies that provide similar efficacy with more convenience.
... Consistent with this literature, we suggest that hypothetical differences between longhand notetaking and digital notetaking are due to variations in cognitive processes. In particular, some researchers have found generally a positive association between the generative processing associated with handwriting and performance (e.g., Davis & Hult, 1997) as well as a link between deeper processing in working memory with handwritten notes and performance (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Kiewra, 1985;Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2018;Peverly et al., 2007). In this context, our purpose to consider studies that equalize distractions across notetaking conditions has more to do with encoding (attentional) processes than with freedom or constraints of physical movements. ...
Article
The present meta-analysis aimed to synthesize the extant research on the influence of longhand (written) versus digital notetaking methods, unconfounded by distractions, on performance, and to identify key potential moderators of such effects. After a systematic literature search, we obtained 77 effect sizes from 39 samples in 36 articles and conducted a multilevel meta-analysis complemented with robust variance estimation. Overall, results showed a mean effect size (mean estimated g = -0.008, 95% CI: -0.18, 0.16) that was not significantly different from zero, suggesting no effect of notetaking approach. Moderator analyses, justified by effect sizes with significant heterogeneity, demonstrated only three significant moderators referring to the topic covered, the learning objectives, and the duration of the material. Overall, however, the present results suggest that an apparent advantage of longhand notetaking reported in some previous studies can be explained at least partially by distractions from notetaking by other applications that are present only with digital devices. Nevertheless, more research is required to identify moderators that might account for variability in the findings. Work using large representative samples of all ages is particularly needed.
... I spend lecture time teaching note-taking, and I give bonuses to students who take a note-taking workshop through my university's learning center. One message I deliver is that note-taking is a form of communication; it is an active learning process, if a person chooses to engage in it (Bui and Myerson 2014). In contrast to simply sitting in lecture and listening to lecture, which is more like watching a video, note-taking requires listening to, filtering, organizing, summarizing, and communicating through writing, which is a much deeper cognitive process (Mueller and Oppenheimer 2014). ...
Chapter
Online learning is increasing in popularity, and human ecology and ethnobiology represent disciplines that have not yet been widely available in this unique format. We foresee this changing soon and see many potential benefits and challenges to teaching human ecology and ethnobiology online. Here, we share our experience of developing and offering the online, undergraduate lesson Culture, Ecology, and Health in Mesoamerica. The lesson describes and links the culture and ecology in Mesoamerica to the study and practice of traditional medicine, and explores ways for students to engage in finding creative solutions to issues of traditional ecological knowledge loss and culturally appropriate medical care. In this chapter, we reflect on pedagogical theories relevant to online learning and teaching in hopes of drawing critical attention to factors that influence student success and satisfaction. Based on our experience, we offer suggestions for developing lessons on human ecology and ethnobiology in the online environment.
... For instance, as note-taking is cognitively effortful (Piolat et al., 2005), the combined demands of having to mentally maintain, organize, and record information while comprehending lecture content may produce excessive cognitive load and interfere with learning in some situations, particularly when lectures are delivered at a rapid pace (Aiken et al., 1975;Ladas, 1980;Peters, 1972) or are highly complex (Sweller & Chandler, 1994). In a similar vein, note-taking may induce greater load for learners with lower cognitive and working memory abilities, who may then face greater difficulty taking effective notes, thereby impairing their retention of the lecture content (e.g., Kiewra & Benton, 1988; for reviews, see Bui & Myerson, 2014;Jansen et al., 2017). To better understand and contextualize the benefits of longhand note-taking, it will be crucial to explore its effects across a wider range of educational settings and learner characteristics. ...
Article
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In two experiments (N = 200), we compared the effects of longhand note-taking, photographing lecture materials with a smartphone camera, and not taking any notes on video-recorded lecture learning. Experiment 1 revealed a longhand-superiority effect: Longhand note-takers outperformed photo-takers and control learners on a recall test, notwithstanding an equal opportunity to review their learning material right before being tested, and even when photo-takers and control participants reviewed an exact transcript of the lecture slides via their photos or printouts, whereas longhand note-takers accessed only a fraction of the content as captured in their handwritten notes. Photo-takers performed comparably to learners who had not taken any notes at all. Experiment 2 further showed that mind-wandering mediates the mnemonic benefits of longhand note-taking: Relative to learners who took photos or did not take any notes, longhand note-takers mind-wandered less and, in turn, demonstrated superior retention of the lecture content. Yet, across both experiments, learners were not cognizant of the advantages of longhand note-taking, but misjudged all three techniques to be equally effective. These findings point to key attentional differences between longhand note-taking and photo-taking that impact learning—knowledge that is easily and conveniently acquired in a snap may not be better remembered.
... Participants demonstrated that making videos during their practical classes and reflecting on them afterwards contributed to their learning process. This supports findings by Anderson and Armbruster (1986), Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985), Bui, Myerson and Hale (2013), Bui and Myerson (2014) and Cohen et al. (2013). When students create their own videos, they need to incorporate them with their other notes when they summarise, add information and create links. ...
Article
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In spite of reported benefits of mobile devices, educational institutions criticise the use of mobile devices for learning because they are considered a distraction in class. Furthermore, researchers claim that the apparent mechanistic use of videos in classes does not contribute to deeper learning. To explore the affordances of videos and the possibility of deeper learning, a group of veterinary science students volunteered to explore the use of videos while attending theoretical and practical lectures. In this qualitative study, the participants tried out a variety of devices to take short videos of procedures and were actively involved with the learning content as they organised and reflected on the self-made videos. In spite of the critique against the use of mobile devices and the apparent shallow learning contribution of videos, participants self-reported that watching the videos again and the processes that took place after the videos were made contributed hugely to their learning experience. Participants demonstrated that mobile devices can be used constructively, and through a process of reflection deepen their learning experience. How the participants use the videos for learning can give lecturers new ideas on how they can use videos in their classes.
... In Hattie's (2012) meta-meta-analysis, note taking reached an effect size of d = 0.50, indicating that it represents an effective learning strategy which can promote student achievement. The positive effect can be explained in two ways: by note taking students record new information to restudy later (external storage benefit) and it fosters the encoding of information in ways that enhance later retrieval (encoding benefit) (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Di Vesta & Gray, 1972). However, students need to be directed in how to take notes effectively when watching an instructional video in class or at home. ...
Thesis
Research on flipped classroom instruction has substantially advanced in the past ten years. Flipped classroom refers to an instructional approach in which students study educational videos at home and do homework assignments in class. Since an increasing number of teachers wants to adopt the flipped classroom approach in their practice, further research—particularly in the context of secondary education—is clearly required. The two presented studies in this thesis aimed at examining the effectiveness of flipped classroom instruction in secondary education by conducting a meta-analytic synthesis of prior studies and an intervention study with a methodologically new approach. Specifically, the studies investigated whether and under which conditions the flipped classroom approach has a positive impact on student achievement and which learners benefit most from a flipped or video-based classroom. In the first study, meta-analytic methods were used to examine whether the flipped classroom approach, after controlling for sampling error, positively effects student achievement in secondary education. Effect sizes were calculated for the research designs pre-test-post-test (Time), post-test only (PostOnly) and pre-test-post-test with control group (Treatment). Moreover, the impact of four moderator variables as boundary conditions of flipped classroom effectiveness was estimated: disciplinary field, length of the intervention, use of a quiz and use of a learning management system. The meta-analytical findings for the effect size Treatment confirmed the effectiveness of flipped classroom on student achievement in comparison to traditional instruction (Cohen’s d = 0.42). Moderator analyses on the effect size Time showed stronger effects for subjects in the STEM area (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) than for foreign languages and humanities. The effect sizes were also higher for shorter intervention studies than for longer ones and if quiz at home had been left out. Moderator analyses on the effect sizes PostOnly and Treatment made clear that the effect sizes for intervention studies without a learning management system were higher than with a learning management system. The second study aimed to compare flipped classroom with other forms of video-based instruction and determine which types of students benefit most from video-based instruction. Thirty-eight school classes with 848 ninth-grade students took part in a quasi-experimental pre-post-test intervention study over the course of four weeks. Two independent variables were completely crossed resulting in four experimental conditions: video (at home vs. in class) and instructional method (student-centred vs. teacher-centred). Multilevel analyses revealed that all four experimental conditions were equally effective in promoting students’ learning gains. At-risk, average and excellent students profited least from video-based instruction. Confident and independent students had the highest learning gains from pre- to post-test. The study constitutes a first step towards a comprehensive evaluation of flipped classroom by using a better-controlled research design and may contribute to a more objective discussion about the positive effects of flipped classroom.
... With such prevailing support for in-class use of technology, college students' note-taking preferences are evolving from the traditional longhand approach to more aesthetically- pleasing methods on a laptop. More important, the cognitive demands in lecture note-taking across both mediums are predicators of the level at which information is retained within a short period of time.DiVesta and Gray (as cited inBui & Myerson, 2014) posited that note-taking promotes learning by supporting an encoding benefit and external storage benefit, both of which can facilitate later retrieval. Encoding involves the transfer of information from working memory to long- term memory and storage is the bringing- forth of information reserved in long-term memory to working memory(Shoen, 2012). ...
Article
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Bertuccio, R. & Fairchild, K. (2015). Implicit versus explicit attitudes: Feelings about Latinos and illegal immigration. Undergraduate Psychology Review, 3 (1), 47-60.
... Being cognitively different may result in students' adopting different note taking strategies and their getting different efficiency (Bui and Myerson, 2014;Jansen et al., 2017). It is quite normal that students take notes differently and use different contractions. ...
... The process of note-taking in the computer science (CS) class is associated with action words and phrases such as capturing, recalling [4] , learning, remembering [5] , paying attention, organizing, recording, and making understandable and legible notes [6] . Mobile terminals have transformed note-taking for students and teachers, from a conventional paper-and-pencil method, to a digital method referred to in this article as "digital note-taking". ...
Article
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Note-taking is an ever-present learning activity in students’ daily lives, and an increasing number of mobile terminals have been integrated into curricu-lums. However, the effectiveness of the use of digital note-taking on mobile terminals on students’ learning has not been deeply explored. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how digital note-taking using mobile terminals af-fects student performance, with particular regard to declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge learning. A quasi-experiment was conducted for three months among 72 first-year high school students from a computer sci-ence (CS) course. In the study, students in the experimental group (n = 40) recorded notes digitally, whereas the students in the control group (n = 32) used the conventional approach (i.e., recording handwritten notes). The re-sults indicate that the students who recorded notes digitally scored signifi-cantly higher than those who recorded notes conventionally. The students who were designated as “excellent,” and those who were designated as “low-performing,” were most likely to benefit from this new method of note-taking.
... One factor that may be important for determining the benefits of instructor-provided notes is the level of support provided, which determines how easy or difficult the note-taking task is as well as the amount of generative processing students engage in. Note-taking requires students to maintain information in their focus of attention while recording other information, which depends highly on working memory resources (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Bui, Myerson, & Hale, 2013;Engle, Tuholski, Laughlin, & Conway, 1999;Piolat, Olive, & Kellogg, 2005). ...
Article
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The method students use to take notes impacts how they process lecture information. The current experiment examined how the format and amount of content included in instructor-provided notes affect learning. Undergraduate students listened to a brief audio-recorded science lecture that emphasised independent facts, while using one of four note-taking guides. These guides varied in their format (outline notes, cloze notes) and level of difficulty (less-difficult, more-difficult). Outline notes included a partially complete organisational framework, promoting knowledge of relationships among concepts. Cloze notes included all lecture content with select words missing, encouraging processing of specific details. Metacognitive ratings and an objective cognitive load measure confirmed that outline note-taking was the most difficult method. However, outline notes led to higher performance than cloze notes on free recall and inference questions, and equal performance on verbatim questions. These benefits were greatest in the more-difficult outline notes condition, when less information was provided. These findings are consistent with the material-appropriate difficulty framework. Increasing note-taking difficulty was desirable, but only when the activity elicited semantic processing that complemented the type of processing afforded by the learning material.
... Working memory, or the ability to temporarily hold and manipulate limited amounts of information (Baddeley, 1986(Baddeley, , 2007, appears to be an important component of note-taking. During note-taking, a load is imposed on WM, as visually and aurally acquired information must be held and organized (Bui and Myerson, 2014). The act of writing down this information, or encoding it in print, is believed to support recall (Kobayashi, 2005) in addition to providing an external memory store for later rehearsal (Eskritt et al., 2001). ...
Article
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The ability to take notes while listening to a lecture is important and complicated. The main goal of the current study was to examine note-taking skills among students with Hebrew as a first language (L1) and students with Arabic as a first language and Hebrew as a second language (L2). Literacy, language, cognitive, and note-taking skills were assessed among 63 undergraduate students (28 L1). L1 students were found to produce notes of higher quality than L2 students. Moreover, there were significant differences between the groups on measures of vocabulary, word reading fluency, and handwriting speed. The results also revealed that first language was the most important variable in predicting note quality, followed by word reading fluency. Educational implications and directions for further research are discussed in light of the findings.
... From a theoretical perspective, note-taking is cognitively demanding task for SWLD (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Olive & Barbier, 2017). Note-taking involves being able to listen, process, organize, and write synchronously, while also dealing with the temporal demands of trying to record notes fast enough (with fluency) to keep up with the teacher (Boyle & Forchelli, 2014;Peverly, 2006). ...
Article
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For high school students with disabilities, one major component of learning in inclusive content area classes, such as English/language arts (ELA), involves listening to verbal information and recording notes. Learning how to record verbal information in notes is a critical skill for students to succeed in these classes. Therefore, this study randomized 54 students with and without disabilities into experimental and control groups and asked them to record notes in inclusive ELA classes. Students in the experimental group, who were taught the smartpen intervention, scored significantly higher on notes and an achievement measure than control group students. The limitations of the research, implications for future research, and recommendations for teachers are discussed.
... Why are students such incomplete note takers? One reason is probably what we might call technical difficulties (Bassili & Joordens, 2008;Bui & Myerson, 2014;Peverly et al., 2013). Most lectures are presented at a rate of approximately 120 to 180 words per minute (Wong, 2014). ...
Article
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Students are incomplete note takers who routinely record just one third of a lesson's important information in their notes. This is unfortunate, because the number of lesson points recorded in notes is positively correlated with student achievement. Moreover, both the activity of recording notes and the subsequent review of notes are advantageous. The authors offer instructors a menu of research-based advice for bolstering student note taking: provide complete notes, provide partial notes, provide note-taking cues, represent the lesson, provide pauses and revision opportunities, control laptop usage, control "cyber slacking," use PowerPoint slides effectively, and teach note-taking skills. They also suggest ways to help students transform their notes during the note-review process and SOAR (select, organize, associate, and regulate) to success.
... They might occupy working memory resources and, thus, interfere with learning (Chi & Ohlsson, 2005;Kane & Engle, 2000;Logie, 2011). Working memory, with its limited capacity in both space and time, has been found to play a crucial role in note-taking (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Piolat, Olive, & Kellogg, 2005). Second, differences in the sensorimotor requirements between the writing modalities might recruit different degrees of neural resources that are relevant for recollection. ...
Article
Digitalisation has changed and broadened the ways people write. In higher education, typing is a common practice both for note-taking and for completing written assignments, relegating pen and paper to the last millennium. The cognitive and educational implications of this change, however, require further investigation. We assessed how three different methods of writing short stories affect students’ subsequent memory retrieval. In a within-subjects design, Finnish students (n = 31) from the University of Lapland transcribed dictated stories using a pencil, a computer keyboard and a virtual touchscreen keyboard. The degree of recollection for each writing task was analysed 30 min after the session and then one week later. The main result is that handwriting led to significantly better recollection after both time delays. This corroborates and extends the findings reported in previous studies, and it calls for further research on writing methods and long-term memory. Additionally, as writing modality seems to affect recollection, reconsideration of instruction practices in higher education is suggested. Typing is the students’ main method of writing and better typing competence can yield multiple benefits for them, including facilitating their academic work and enhancing the recollection of their own work.
... Open-ended learning environments like Virtual Performance Assessments impose a high cognitive load on learners' working memory. Previous research suggests that individual differences in working memory ability may be associated with individual differences in note-taking strategies and the effectiveness of note-taking (Bui & Myerson, 2014). Our results indicated that the effects of note-taking on science inquiry performance could be different, depending on the amount of cognitive load imposed by the learning scenario. ...
Article
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Note-taking is important for academic success and has been thoroughly studied in traditional classroom contexts. Recent advancements of technology have led to more students taking notes on computers, and in different situations than are common in traditional instructional contexts. However, research on computer-based note-taking is still an emerging area, and findings from these studies are mixed. In this exploratory study, we conducted multilevel analysis to comprehensively investigate the relationship between note-taking measures and subsequent student success at science inquiry among middle school students, using two scenarios of an open-ended learning environment named Virtual Performance Assessments. Analysis revealed an advantage for content elaborative note-taking over content reproductive note-taking conditional on the source of notes taken, but other measures were less consistent between the two scenarios. Implications of the findings and limitations of this research are also discussed.
... It is unlikely that many resources are available for more generative processing of lecture information. (Kiewra et al. 1991, p. 241) Other researchers have also found the activity of note taking cognitively demanding and sometimes ineffective when recorded notes are not reviewed (Bui and Myerson 2014;Katayama and Robinson 2000;Piolat et al. 2005). ...
Article
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There has been a shift in college classrooms from students recording lecture notes using a longhand pencil-paper medium to using laptops. The present study investigated whether note-taking medium (laptop, longhand) influenced note taking and achievement when notes were recorded but not reviewed (note taking’s process function) and when notes were recorded and reviewed (note taking’s product function). One unique aspect of the study was determining how laptop and longhand note taking influence the recording of lecture images in notes and image-related achievement. Note-taking results showed that laptop note takers recorded more notes (idea units and words) and more verbatim lecture strings than did longhand note takers who, in turn, recorded more visual notes (signals and images) than did laptop note takers. Achievement results showed that when taking laptop notes, the process function of note taking was more beneficial than the product function of note taking (i.e., better image-related learning and similar text-related learning). When taking longhand notes, the product function of note taking was more beneficial than the process function of note taking (i.e., better text-related learning and similar image-related learning). Achievement findings suggest that the optimal note-taking medium depends on the nature of the lecture and whether notes are reviewed.
... Second, the benefits of note-taking may be moderated by working memory ability. In particular, learners with low working memory are better off transcribing than synthesizing lecture notes (Bui & Myerson, 2014). ...
Article
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Researchers’ and educators’ enthusiasm in applying cognitive principles to enhance educational practices has become more evident. Several published reviews have suggested that some potent strategies can help students learn more efficaciously. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, students do not report frequent reliance on these empirically supported techniques. In the present review, we take a novel approach, identifying study strategies for which students have strong preferences and assessing whether these preferred strategies have any merit given existing empirical evidence from the cognitive and educational literatures. Furthermore, we provide concrete recommendations for students, instructors, and psychologists. For students, we identify common pitfalls and tips for optimal implementation for each study strategy. For instructors, we provide recommendations for how they can assist students to more optimally implement these study strategies. For psychologists, we highlight promising avenues of research to help augment these study strategies.
... Students grapple with multi-tasking during class while they have to pay attention, listen, process and record information accurately [4][5]. In addition, in a practical environment, students have to compete to get close enough to the demonstration so that they can see exactly what is demonstrated. ...
Conference Paper
Millennials are known to spend multiple hours watching videos on their digital devices in the form of movies and series, but whilst there are many educational videos available online, it is not yet clear whether, and how, they use these videos for educational purposes. In this research, the focus is not only on how existing videos are used in the teaching and learning process of eight veterinary science undergraduates, but also on how students benefitted from student-made footage taken with an action camera in various educational settings. The participants in this study were volunteering veterinary students who explored the use of mobile devices to take notes. Their feedback was obtained during a set of five group interviews. Apart from a number of different mobile devices and applications, the participants also used an action camera in both their traditional lectures as well as practical demonstrations. The study discovered that participants found it easy to use the action camera for note-taking purposes. They also commented on its usefulness and recommended that it be used for recording information during practical classes on a regular basis.
... Working memory functioning has emerged as a predictor of academic performance in different domains, such as language comprehension (Daneman & Merikle, 1996;McVay & Kane, 2011), mathematical abilities (Raghubar, Barnes, & Hecht, 2010) and text writing (see Olive 2012, for a review). It has been hypothesized that working memory plays a role in lecture note taking, as this system is plausibly responsible for handling the flux of information a note taker is exposed to during a lecture, and for keeping that information active as it is being filtered, understood, and recorded (Bui & Myerson, 2014;Piolat et al., 2005). Yet, the attempts to investigate the relationship between verbal working memory and the quantity and quality of lecture notes have produced inconsistent results. ...
Article
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The present study investigated the relationship between notes quality, handwriting speed, and objective and self-report measures of attention in a sample of college students. Handwriting speed was measured using verbal tasks (alphabet copying and sentence copying) as well as nonverbal tasks (symbol copying). Objective measures of attention were obtained using the Attention Network Test (ANT). Subjective measures of everyday attentional functioning were collected using three validated questionnaires measuring participants' perceived cognitive failures in everyday life, their mindfulness-awareness and their tendency to experience absentmindedness and distraction. Notes quality was better for participants who were faster writers, had faster overall reaction times measured by the ANT, and reported being frequently observant in the present moment. Handwriting speed was the strongest predictor of note taking performance. Our findings provide additional evidence on the positive impact of handwriting on information processing, and support the continued use of handwriting in education, despite the increasing popularity and ubiquity of typing.
Article
Background The use of lecture handouts is very common in all institutes of higher education, whether medical or otherwise. Students prefer handouts and think of them positively. On the other hand, teachers across disciplines have varied opinions regarding the utility and effects of handouts on learning outcomes. In our university, the use of lecture handouts is a common practice despite being officially discouraged. Materials and Methods This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted at King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from March 2022 to August 2022 to assess the attitude and practice of Medical Colleges students’ regarding handout use and their perception of the effects of handouts on the quality of undergraduate medical education. Given our set inclusion/exclusion criteria, out of 521 eligible student participants, a total of 430 students were enrolled in the study. Results A 73.7% of respondents agreed that handouts helped them write notes and follow explanations in a better way, whereas 25.1% respondents reported that they were not willing to attend the classes when receiving handouts early. Majority of respondents (80.5%) thought that the use of handouts would improve their examination performance and GPA, while 31.6% think providing handouts might result in poor attendance. The most negative perception among the respondents was that 67.9% of the respondents believed that consulting references were only needed if no handouts are provided. Conclusions We found that most of the students thought positively about the use of handouts. However, the results brought up many hidden but glaring negative effects of the handouts on attendance and reading from textbooks, which need to be addressed.
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Background Working memory (WM) is one of the most influential cognitive functions in encoding, registering, and retrieving information. It influences the learning process in children. Its role becomes essential, especially in a child with a learning disability (LD). Researchers worldwide are giving much prominence to WM, especially in devising cognitive retraining strategies for better cognitive functioning and academic attainment in these children. This current study aims to explore globally used instruments to measure this construct and review effective WM training models in the cognitive rehabilitation of children with LD. This study used a systematic review, availing the elaborate “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA)” guidelines. Summary The databases of Google Scholar, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched thoroughly, and those studies, which met the inclusion criteria, were considered for this review. Out of 770 studies found with keywords, only six met the inclusion criteria and were selected for a detailed analysis. The outcome of the current review provides trustworthy evidence of poor performance, especially in tasks involving verbal and executive WM in children with all types of learning disabilities (LD) and difficulties. The studies reviewed support the hypothesis that WM can improve with training and significantly improve children’s academic attainment. Key Message Further this review recommends that research and efforts must go into devising these cognitive training techniques. Children have high cerebral plasticity; hence, using cognitive training (emphasizing WM training and other cognitive functions) with them would enhance their cognitive functioning and capacity, improving their academic performance.
Article
Many students have the option of taking notes using the traditional pen and paper method or using computers to take notes digitally. Decisions about which notetaking method to use can be particularly important for students operating in a second language (L2), as they often face challenges in listening comprehension and note production in comparison to working in their first language (L1). While empirical research has begun to investigate which notetaking method might be more beneficial in terms of note content and lecture comprehension, less is known about how preference for pen and paper or computerized notetaking may affect views of notetaking and notetaking habits. Therefore, this paper builds on previous survey studies on student notetaking by comparing responses from those who prefer taking notes with pen and paper with those who prefer computerized notetaking. In addition, while much research has focused on students listening to content and taking notes in their L1, participants in this study were doing so in English as an L2. Data from 385 participants across four countries was collected via an online survey, and 2 × 2 chi squared tests of independence were used to determine any differences between those who prefer pen and paper and those who prefer computerized notetaking in relation to statements about and habits related to notetaking. Results showed more differences in opinions, in particular related to feelings about comprehension and concentration levels, and more consistency in notetaking habits. Implications are discussed in relation to levels of processing and encoding theories as well as to previous research.
Article
This study aims at examining master's and doctoral theses, and scientific articles, which are written on note taking in Turkey, systematically and descriptively. Systematic review method was used in the research. The research to be included in the review were obtained from the databases of Council of Higher Education (YÖK) Thesis Center, ULAKBİM TR Index and Dergipark with keywords. According to the findings, 83% of the studies investigate the relationship between notetaking and variables such as academic achievement, listening skill, and retention of information in memory. 65% of the studies were conducted using experimental methods, and qualitative methods that could reveal the functioning of the teaching process and students' opinions about this process were rarely used. Many issues related to note taking such as note taking with computers, note taking in the education of individuals in need of special education, history of notetaking, cognitive psychology and note taking have been ignored. In most of the studies, data were collected from university and secondary school students. As a result, it emerges that the note taking strategy should be associated with different fields, it should be handled outside of the methods and approaches used, and data should be collected from different study groups.
Chapter
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Students are distracted by mobile technology in the classroom when learning from lectures and outside the classroom when studying. Students are susceptible to distractions because they are not fully engaged in learning. In the classroom, they record notes mindlessly that capture just one-third of important lesson ideas. When they study outside the classroom, they study information in a piecemeal fashion and employ mindless repetition strategies. These weak and unengaging learning strategies open the door for digital distractions. One potential means to engage students in meaningful learning and to offset digital distractions is an integrated strategy system called SOAR, which stands for select, organize, associate, and regulate. This chapter describes SOAR and how instructors can maximize SOAR's components to curb digital distractions by improving student note taking in the classroom and study behaviors outside the classroom. The chapter concludes by specifying how instructors can teach students to SOAR on their own.
Article
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two listening strategies on rhythmic dictation scores. In a within-subjects design, 54 undergraduate music majors completed two-measure rhythmic dictations under each of three conditions: (a) no prescribed approach, (b) required listening before writing, and (c) required writing while listening. The first condition gauged participants’ baseline preference for the approach of the second or third condition. Repeated-measures t tests revealed a significant difference in test scores between the second and third conditions but no significant difference as a function of participants’ preferred strategy. Results suggest that some amount of simultaneous sketching may be helpful to students as they take dictation of rhythms, a common task in aural skills development both in and of itself and as a first phase of melodic dictation. Aural skills instructors should consider the potential benefits of sketching as an anchoring activity during dictation and discuss strategies explicitly with students. Helping high school and college students see how and why various strategies for dictation may be appropriate for particular task parameters can help them integrate component skills of listening, comprehension, and notation most effectively.
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There is a need to better understand note-taking in lectures. Specifically, how in-class and after-class note-taking strategies are used, whether the use of in-class and after-class note-taking strategies varies by gender, year of study and field of major/discipline and to explore the connection between the use of in-class note-taking strategies and after-class note-taking strategies. The study described in this article gathered data from 1072 undergraduate students. The results showed that during class, the most frequently employed strategy was key point selection, followed by comprehension-monitoring, organisation, copying and elaboration. After class, the strategy employed most frequently was elaboration, followed by organisation and help-seeking. It was revealed that females are more likely than males to employ copying, key point selection, organisation and comprehension-monitoring strategies during class as well as elaboration, organisation and help-seeking strategies after class. In addition, students majoring in humanities or social sciences are more likely than those majoring in the natural sciences to use key point selection strategy during class. Finally, students’ in-class note-taking strategies were correlated with their after-class note-taking strategies. Implications for practice are presented.
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Cambridge Core - Cognition - The Cambridge Handbook of Cognition and Education - edited by John Dunlosky
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The Cambridge Handbook of Cognition and Education - edited by John Dunlosky February 2019
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We examined whether multitasking via concurrent off-task text messaging during an academic presentation impacted students’ performance on tests assessing lower-order and higher-order learning. College students (N = 183) were assigned to one of two conditions involving either concurrent texting or not texting during an academic presentation, or to a no presentation condition. Students in presentation conditions were encouraged to take hand-written notes. Between-participants analyses revealed that students who saw the presentation performed better on learning measures than the control group who did not see the presentation, indicating that students did learn from the presentations. Non-texters scored significantly higher than texters on multiple choice tests of factual, lower-order information (e.g., knowledge, comprehension), but not on essays requiring higher-order application, analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information. Within-participants analyses demonstrated that texters performed more poorly on lower-order questions that were based on information presented at times when they were texting. Non-texters took more quality notes than texters; amount of quality notes was positively related to test scores of all types. The amount of quality notes taken partially mediated the relationship between texting condition and multiple choice test scores. It appears that multitasking with media devices during an academic presentation interferes with note-taking and the encoding of information specific to the presentation.
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The recording of words in a vocabulary notebook is regarded as a plausible and efficient method for learners, since they can organize and manage the individual words they wish to acquire. The wide appeal of portable computers has resulted in a rapid increase in taking notes via computers across college campuses. Although computers can increase transcription speed when students take notes, they are also detrimental to learning, because students tend to mindlessly transcribe results, resulting in shallow processing. To resolve the issue, in this study, an association-based strategy is introduced to assist learners in compiling vocabulary notebooks. To assess the strategy, an experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of the proposed nonlinear associations note-taking method with respect to the traditional linear outline method. The results show that both strategies could increase vocabulary retention; however, the associations format was significantly better than the outline format. In addition, through a deep analysis of both types of note-taking processes, we also found that students using the associations note-taking method developed more meaningful word association styles (e.g., linking words that had similar contexts) in composing their notes than students using the outline note-taking method. When examining how learners with different cognitive styles took the notes, the results showed that learner performance depends on cognitive style, as well as the chosen organizational format. The findings suggest that a nonlinear association note-taking strategy may help students organize words in a meaningful way.
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Micro learning becomes popular in online open learning and it is effective and helpful for learning in mobile environment. However, the delivery of open education resources (OERs) is scarcely supported by the current online systems. In this research, the authors introduce an approach to bridge the gap by providing adaptive micro open education resources for individual learners to carry out learning activities in a short time span. They propose a framework for micro learning resource customization and a personalized learner model, which are supported by education data mining (EDM) and learning analysis (LA). A service-oriented architecture for Micro Learning as a Service (MLaaS) is designed to integrate all necessary procedures together as a complete Service for delivering micro OERs, providing a platform for resource sharing and exchanging in peer-to-peer learning environment. Working principle of a key step, namely the computational decision-making of micro OER adaptation, is also introduced.
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A theory is proposed to account for some of the age-related differences reported in measures of Type A or fluid cognition. The central hypothesis in the theory is that increased age in adulthood is associated with a decrease in the speed with which many processing operations can be executed and that this reduction in speed leads to impairments in cognitive functioning because of what are termed the limited time mechanism and the simultaneity mechanism. That is, cognitive performance is degraded when processing is slow because relevant operations cannot be successfully executed (limited time) and because the products of early processing may no longer be available when later processing is complete (simultaneity). Several types of evidence, such as the discovery of considerable shared age-related variance across various measures of speed and large attenuation of the age-related influences on cognitive measures after statistical control of measures of speed, are consistent with this theory.
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The purpose of this review is to formulate a revised model of information processing that takes into account recent research on memory storage, selective attention, effortful versus automatic processing, and the mutual constraints that these areas place on one another. One distinctive aspect of the proposed model is the inclusion of two phases of sensory storage in each modality. The first phase extends sensation for several hundred milliseconds, whereas the second phase is a vivid recollection of sensation. The mechanism of at least the longer phase is the activation of features in long-term memory, comparable to the mechanism of non-sensory, short-term storage. Another distinctive aspect of the model is that habituation/dishabituation and central executive processes together are assumed to determine the focus of attention, without the need for either an early or a late attentional filter. Research issues that contribute to a comparison of models are discussed.
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A series of 7 experiments used dual-task methodology to investigate the role of working memory in the operation of a simple action-control plan or program involving regular switching between addition and subtraction. Lists requiring switching were slower than blocked lists and showed 2 concurrent task effects. Demanding executive tasks impaired performance on both blocked and switched lists, whereas articulatory suppression impaired principally the switched condition. Implications for models of task switching and working memory and for the Vygotskian concept of verbal control of action are discussed.
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A study was conducted in which 133 participants performed 11 memory tasks (some thought to reflect working memory and some thought to reflect short-term memory), 2 tests of general fluid intelligence, and the Verbal and Quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Structural equation modeling suggested that short-term and working memories reflect separate but highly related constructs and that many of the tasks used in the literature as working memory tasks reflect a common construct. Working memory shows a strong connection to fluid intelligence, but short-term memory does not. A theory of working memory capacity and general fluid intelligence is proposed: The authors argue that working memory capacity and fluid intelligence reflect the ability to keep a representation active, particularly in the face of interference and distraction. The authors also discuss the relationship of this capability to controlled attention, and the functions of the prefrontal cortex.
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In phylogeny as in ontogeny, the association cortex of the frontal lobe, also known as the prefrontal cortex, is a late-developing region of the neocortex. It is also one of the cortical regions to undergo the greatest expansion in the course of both evolution and individual maturation. In the human adult, the prefrontal cortex constitutes as much as nearly one-third of the totality of the neocortex. The protracted, relatively large, development of the prefrontal cortex is manifest in gross morphology as well as fine structure. In the developing individual, its late maturation is made most apparent by the late myelination of its axonal connections. This and other indices of morphological development of the prefrontal cortex correlate with the development of cognitive functions that neuropsychological studies in animals and humans have ascribed to this cortex. In broad outline, the ventromedial areas of the prefrontal cortex, which with respect to other prefrontal areas develop relatively early, are involved in the expression and control of emotional and instinctual behaviors. On the other hand, the late maturing areas of the lateral prefrontal convexity are principally involved in higher executive functions. The most general executive function of the lateral prefrontal cortex is the temporal organization of goal-directed actions in the domains of behavior, cognition, and language. In all three domains, that global function is supported by a fundamental role of the lateral prefrontal cortex in temporal integration, that is, the integration of temporally discontinuous percepts and neural inputs into coherent structures of action. Temporal integration is in turn served by at least three cognitive functions of somewhat different prefrontal topography: working memory, preparatory set, and inhibitory control. These functions engage the prefrontal cortex in interactive cooperation with other neocortical regions. The development of language epitomizes the development of temporal integrative cognitive functions and their underlying neural substrate, notably the lateral prefrontal cortex and other late-developing cortical regions
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This paper reports on two studies using computer-based dictation tasks for measuring speed of typing and handwriting. In the first study, 952 students aged 11 to 17 years attending 19 different secondary schools hand wrote and typed passages dictated by a computer. For both handwriting and typing, a very high correlation was found between speed calculated by the computer and that calculated by a human assessor, establishing that computerised calculation is a reliable as well as convenient and time-saving method of establishing writing speed. There were greater age-related gains in speed of typing compared with handwriting and greater variation in typing skill than handwriting skill. However, almost half of students with slow handwriting (below standard score 85) were found to have average or better typing speeds. In the second study, 55 students aged 13 to 14 years were administered these tasks together with the Hedderley Sentence Completion Test of handwriting speed. Despite the clear differences between the two test formats, a significant moderate level of correlation was found between them (r=0.54). Almost one-third of students with slow handwriting in the computer-based task had not previously been identified as having support needs but would potentially be disadvantaged in written examinations. By eliminating the ‘thinking’ time involved in free writing, computerised dictation tasks give ‘purer’ measures which can reveal physical handwriting and/or typing problems. They also simulate examination requirements more closely than mechanical repetitive tests of writing speed, and should be particularly helpful in establishing whether students need access arrangements in examinations.
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Three experiments examined note-taking strategies and their relation to recall. In Experiment 1, participants were instructed either to take organized lecture notes or to try and transcribe the lecture, and they either took their notes by hand or typed them into a computer. Those instructed to transcribe the lecture using a computer showed the best recall on immediate tests, and the subsequent experiments focused on note-taking using computers. Experiment 2 showed that taking organized notes produced the best recall on delayed tests. In Experiment 3, however, when participants were given the opportunity to study their notes, those who had tried to transcribe the lecture showed better recall on delayed tests than those who had taken organized notes. Correlational analyses of data from all 3 experiments revealed that for those who took organized notes, working memory predicted note-quantity, which predicted recall on both immediate and delayed tests. For those who tried to transcribe the lecture, in contrast, only note-quantity was a consistent predictor of recall. These results suggest that individuals who have poor working memory (an ability traditionally thought to be important for note-taking) can still take effective notes if they use a note-taking strategy (transcribing using a computer) that can help level the playing field for students of diverse cognitive abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
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The primary purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship of handwriting speed, fine motor fluency, speed of verbal access, language comprehension, working memory, and attention (executive control; selective) to note-taking and all of the aforementioned variables to test performance (written recall). A second purpose was to determine whether one or both of the hypothesized components of handwriting speed (as based in the children’s literature), fine motor speed or speed access to verbal codes (SAVCs), are responsible for the relationship of handwriting speed to notes. Results indicated that handwriting speed and selective attention were the only variables significantly related to notes and note-taking skill was the only variable that was significantly related to test performance. In a secondary analysis, we tested whether fine motor fluency and SAVC were related to handwriting speed. Handwriting speed was regressed on all of the other independent variables. Only fine motor fluency and SAVC were related to handwriting speed. The implications of these results for conceptualizations of note-taking and handwriting speed are discussed.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between programming skill acquisition and various measures of individual differences, including: 1) prior knowledge and general cognitive skills (e.g., word knowledge, information processing speed); 2) problem solving abilities (e.g., ability to decompose a problem into its constituent parts); and 3) learning style measures (e.g., asking for hints versus solving problems on one's own). Subjects ( N = 260) received extensive Pascal programming instruction from an intelligent tutoring system. Following instruction, an online battery of criterion tests was administered measuring programming knowledge and skills acquired from the tutor. Results showed that a large amount (68%) of the outcome variance could be predicted by a working-memory factor, specific word problem solving abilities (i.e., problem identification and sequencing of elements) and some learning style measures (i.e., asking for hints and running programs). Implications of the findings for the development of a theoretical framework on which to base programming instruction are discussed.
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Meta‐analyses of 33 studies were conducted to examine (1) how much the combination of taking and reviewing notes contributes to school learning, and (2) whether interventions in the note‐taking/‐reviewing procedure enhance note‐taking/‐reviewing effects, and if so, how much and under what conditions. Syntheses of findings from note‐taking/‐reviewing versus no note‐taking/‐reviewing comparison studies indicated that the overall effects of note‐taking/‐reviewing were substantial. The advantage of note‐taking with intervention over without intervention was modest but significantly greater than zero. This intervention effect was moderated by two variables: presence of provided notes and academic level of participants. Providing a framework or instructor's notes was more effective in the enhancement of note‐taking/‐reviewing effects than pre‐training or verbal instruction only. The participants at lower academic levels gained greater benefits from interventions compared with the participants at a higher academic level.
Conference Paper
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'CCK08' was a unique event on Connectivism and Connective Knowledge within a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) in 2008. It was a course and a network about the emergent practices and the theory of Connectivism, proposed by George Siemens as a new learning theory for a digital age. It was convened and led by Stephen Downes and George Siemens through the University of Manitoba, Canada. Although the event was not formally advertised, more than 2000 participants from all over the world registered for the course, with 24 of these enrolled for credit. The course presented a unique opportunity to discover more about how people learn in large open networks, which offer extensive diversity, connectivity and opportunities for sharing knowledge. Learners are increasingly exercising autonomy regarding where, when, how, what and with whom to learn. To do this, they often select technologies independent of those offered by traditional courses. In CCK08 this autonomy was encouraged and learning on the course was distributed across a variety of platforms. This paper explores the perspectives of some of the participants on their learning experiences in the course, in relation to the characteristics of connectivism outlined by Downes, i.e. autonomy, diversity, openness and connectedness/interactivity. The findings are based on an online survey which was emailed to all active participants and email interview data from self-selected interviewees. The research found that autonomy, diversity, openness and connectedness/interactivity are indeed characteristics of a MOOC, but that they present paradoxes which are difficult to resolve in an online course. The more autonomous, diverse and open the course, and the more connected the learners, the more the potential for their learning to be limited by the lack of structure, support and moderation normally associated with an online course, and the more they seek to engage in traditional groups as opposed to an open network. These responses constrain the possibility of having the positive experiences of autonomy, diversity, openness and connectedness/interactivity normally expected of an online network. The research suggests that the question of whether a large open online network can be fused with a course has yet to be resolved. Further research studies with larger samples are needed, as is an investigation into the ethical considerations which may need to be taken into account when testing new theory and practice on course participants.
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Note taking is a complex activity that requires comprehension and selection of information and written production processes. Here we review the functions, abbreviation procedures, strategies, and working memory constraints of note taking with the aim of improving theoretical and practical understanding of the activity. The time urgency of selecting key points and recording them while comprehending new information at the same time places significant demands on the central executive and other components of working memory. Dual-and triple-task procedures allow the measurement of the momentary cognitive effort or executive attention allocated to note taking. Comparative data show that note taking demands more effort than reading or learning. However, it requires less effort than the creative written composition of an original text.
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Working memory (WM) training has been reported to benefit abilities as diverse as fluid intelligence (Jaeggi et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105:6829-6833, 2008) and reading comprehension (Chein & Morrison, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17:193-199, 2010), but transfer is not always observed (for reviews, see Morrison & Chein, Psychonomics Bulletin & Review, 18:46-60, 2011; Shipstead et al., Psychological Bulletin, 138:628-654, 2012). In contrast, recent WM training studies have consistently reported improvement on the trained tasks. The basis for these training benefits has received little attention, however, and it is not known which WM components and/or processes are being improved. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to investigate five possible mechanisms underlying the effects of adaptive dual n-back training on working memory (i.e., improvements in executive attention, updating, and focus switching, as well as increases in the capacity of the focus of attention and short-term memory). In addition to a no-contact control group, the present study also included an active control group whose members received nonadaptive training on the same task. All three groups showed significant improvements on the n-back task from pretest to posttest, but adaptive training produced larger improvements than did nonadaptive training, which in turn produced larger improvements than simply retesting. Adaptive, but not nonadaptive, training also resulted in improvements on an untrained running span task that measured the capacity of the focus of attention. No other differential improvements were observed, suggesting that increases in the capacity of the focus of attention underlie the benefits of adaptive dual n-back training.
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Examined differences between good and poor writers on 6 cognitive-processing tasks. In Exp I, 3 tasks were employed to ascertain differences between 15 good and 15 poor undergraduate writers on recall and manipulation of information: an ordered letters task, an iconic memory task, and a letter reordering task. In Exp II, 3 additional tasks were employed to examine 17 good and 16 poor undergraduate writers' abilities to hold and manipulate larger amounts of information: a word reordering task, a sentence reordering task, and a paragraph assembly task. In both experiments, the results reveal significant differences between good and poor writers' abilities to hold and simultaneously manipulate information. Exp III replicated the results of Exps I and II with 15 good and 14 poor high school writers. It is suggested that the observed differences between good and poor writers can be attributed to differences in elementary information-processing programs. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Conducted 2 experiments in which 230 undergraduates listened to a passage divided into 6 segments of 5 min each; manipulations were made of thematic relatedness of content, listen-study intervals, and note taking. More ideas were recalled when note taking was not permitted and when the material was on different topics or unconnected than when the material was on the same topic and/or connected. These effects were noted especially on a delayed-recall test administered 1 wk following the listening period. No significant effects due to variations in listen-study intervals were found. The hypothesis that note taking is beneficial for Ss with high memory span but not for Ss with low memory span was provided some support. Results are interpreted in terms of less interference in discontinuous themes than in continuous themes. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Previous research has shown better text learning after rereading versus 1 reading of a text. However, rereading effects have only been explored using immediate tests, whereas most students face delays between study and test. In 2 experiments, 423 college students read a text once, twice in massed fashion, or twice with 1 week between trials. Students were tested either immediately or 2 days after study. On an immediate test, performance was greater after massed versus single reading, whereas performance for distributed rereading was not significantly greater than after single reading. On a delayed test, performance was greater after distributed versus single reading, whereas performance for massed rereading and single reading no longer differed significantly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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In this ethnographic interview study, college students' theory of note-taking emerged after 4 phases. The theory was confirmed in a 5th interview phase. The students' theory includes conclusions consistent with ones already in the note-taking literature, but also many insights into note-taking dynamics that have not been identified in previous research. The amalgamation of previous note-taking theory and empirical outcomes with the students' theory provides a more complete theory of self-regulated note-taking than existed previously. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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Two experiments with 130 undergraduates investigated the effects of note taking and reviewing on learning from text. Findings support the encoding function of note taking and demonstrate that unguided elaboration hindered performance on teacher-made tests. When delayed tests were based on S's own notes, average scores were nearly twice as high as when test were based on either teacher selection of test material or on other Ss' notes (for all reviewing treatments). Interpretations are in terms of metacognitions related to taking notes, transfer-appropriate processing, and the requirements necessary for elaboration to be an effective learning strategy. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Chapter
This chapter is divided into two parts. The first describes the effect of Pat Rabbitt's influence in encouraging the first author to use the increasingly sophisticated methods of ageing research to answer questions about the fundamental characteristics of working memory, together with reflections on why so little of this work reached publication. The second part presents a brief review of the literature on working memory and ageing, followed by an account of more recent work attempting to apply the traditional method of experimental dissociation to research on normal ageing and Alzheimer's disease. The discussion suggests that even such simple methods can throw light on both the processes of ageing and the understanding of working memory.
Article
This study examined the encoding specificity principle in relation to traditional and computer-based note taking and assessment formats in higher education. Students (N = 79) took lecture notes either by hand (n = 40) or by computer (n = 39) and then completed either a computer or a paper-based assessment. When note taking and assessment formats were congruent, students scored significantly higher on the assessment when compared to students whose note taking and assessment format were incongruent. These findings highlight the importance of research on how in-class technology may affect student performance, and suggest that faculty and administrators seek to coordinate and standardize the use of assessment and note taking technologies where possible.
Article
This study investigated working memory, verbal ability, and prior knowledge as predictors of the quality of: (a) students' notes taken during a lecture; (b) summaries of the lecture written during a review period; and (c) recall of the lecture content. The usefulness of taking notes was considered in terms of quality of summarization and recall of the lecture material for three groups of students who: (a) listened to the lecture, took notes, and reviewed those notes; (b) listened to the lecture and reviewed a set of provided notes; or (c) listened to the lecture, took notes, and then reviewed a set of provided notes. Results indicated that students with higher working memory benefit more from listening to the lecture than listening and taking notes. However, the quality of summaries written was a more powerful predictor of performance than the individual differences students' brought to the task. This study extends previous studies by integrating summarization and lecture learning research and providing new insight into the role of notetaking and its relationship to working memory.
Article
College students were randomly assigned to seven note-taking and review conditions in order to determine the relative importance of the functions of encoding and either an externally provided or a personally produced memory device. Results of the post-test showed that a combination of encoding and reviewing either one’s own notes or an outline of the lecture produced the best recall scores, while either personally encoding notes or being provided with a lecture outline during the lecture accompanied by “mental” review produced the least recall. The findings are discussed in terms of practical suggestions for professors and their students.
Article
The importance of notetaking techniques and working memory are explored in the learning of economics in a college principles course at the University of South Carolina. Instructor-supplied notes are found to be a good substitute for a classroom lecture.
Article
SummaryA previous investigation of the cognitive processes underlying note‐taking found that handwriting speed was the only significant predictor of notes, and notes were the only significant predictor of test performance. This investigation sought to extend these results by evaluating the effects of handwriting speed, language comprehension, two measures of working memory (complex span and executive attention) and an outline on note‐taking and test performance (written summary). Participants were randomly assigned to an outline or not no‐outline group (Group) to determine the effect of an outline on handwriting speed. Results from a path analysis indicated that handwriting speed, language comprehension and Group were significantly related to notes. The relationship between the independent variables and the written summary was not completely mediated by notes as in the previous investigation. Notes, Group and language comprehension were related to the written summary. The implications of the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Article
The complex span measure of working memory is a word/digit span measured while performing a secondary task. Two experiments investigated whether correlations between the complex span and reading comprehension depend on the nature of the secondary task and individual skill in that task. The secondary task did not have to be reading related for the span to predict reading comprehension. An arithmetic-related secondary task led to correlations with reading comprehension similar to those found when the secondary task was reading. The relationship remained significant when quantitative skills were factored out of the complex span/comprehension correlations. Simple digit and word spans (measured without a background task) did not correlate with reading comprehension and SAT scores. The second experiment showed that the complex span/comprehension correlations were a function of the difficulty of the background task. When the difficulty level of the reading-related or arithmetic-related background tasks was moderate, the span/comprehension correlations were higher in magnitude than when the background tasks were very simple, or, were very difficult.
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This paper presents a meta-analysis of the data from 6,179 participants in 77 studies that investigated the association between working-memory capacity and language comprehension ability. A primary goal of the meta-analysis was to compare the predictive power of the measures of working memory developed by Daneman and Carpenter (1980) with the predictive power of other measures of working memory. The results of the meta-analysis support Daneman and Carpenter's (1980) claim that measures that tap the combined processing and storage capacity of working memory (e.g., reading span, listening span) are better predictors of comprehension than are measures that tap only the storage capacity (e.g., word span, digit span). The meta-analysis also showed that math process plus storage measures of working memory are good predictors of comprehension. Thus, the superior predictive power of the process plus storage measures is not limited to measures that involve the manipulation of words and sentences.
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According to the cognitive cascade hypothesis, age-related slowing results in decreased working memory, which in turn affects higher-order cognition. Because recent studies show complex associative learning correlates highly with fluid intelligence, the present study examined the role of complex associative learning in cognitive cascade models of data from adults aged 30–80 years. Path analyses revealed that an extended cascade model, in which associative learning mediated the relation between working memory and fluid intelligence, provided an adequate fit to the data. Moreover, an alternative extended cascade model, one with an additional path from speed to fluid intelligence and separate learning and secondary memory components, provided an excellent fit. These findings establish a role for complex associative learning in the extended cognitive cascade underlying age and individual differences in fluid intelligence.
Article
College students (N = 85) read a passage in which each sentence had been normatively assessed as to its importance to the overall meaning of the passage. Students expecting an essay examination took notes on sentences of higher structural importance than those anticipating a multiple choice test, even though there was no difference in the number of notes taken or in total test performance. The students took notes on 31% of the passage sentences and such notes were of high structural importance value. Most importantly, note taking seemed to serve as both an encoding device and as an external storage mechanism, with the latter being the more important function. The external storage function not only led to enhanced recall of the notes, but also facilitated the reconstruction of other parts of the passage.
Article
An experiment is reported in which young and older adults heard short English sentences that differed in syntactic complexity and speech rate. The syntactic contrast pitted center-embedded sentences with a subject-relative clause against sentences with center-embedded object-relative clauses. Speech rate was varied using computer time-compression of the speech signal. Both young and older adults showed poorer comprehension accuracy for the more complex object-relative clause sentences than subject-relative sentences, with an age difference appearing only when sentences were presented at a very rapid rate. By contrast to accuracy scores, older adults took longer than the young adults to give their comprehension responses at all speech rates tested, with this age difference amplified by both speech rate and syntactic complexity.
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The current study examined the extent to which attention control abilities, secondary memory abilities, or both accounted for variation in working memory capacity (WMC) and its relation to fluid intelligence. Participants performed various attention control, secondary memory, WMC, and fluid intelligence measures. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested that attention control, secondary memory, and WMC were best represented as three separate, yet correlated factors, each of which was correlated with fluid intelligence. Structural equation modeling suggested that both attention control and secondary memory accounted for unique variance in WMC. Furthermore, structural equation modeling and variance partitioning analyses suggested that a substantial part of the shared variance between WMC and fluid intelligence was due to both attention control and secondary memory abilities. Working memory capacity also accounted for variance in fluid intelligence independently of what was accounted for by the other two factors. The results are interpreted within a dual-component model of WMC which suggests that both attention control and secondary memory abilities (as well as other abilities) are important components of WMC.
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Much of the research on notetaking has distinguished and compared its process and product functions. Conclusions are that the act of notetaking is beneficial independent of review (the process function), and that the review of notes is additionally beneficial (the product function). Although such research informs us that these activities are effective, it fails to explain how learners should take notes and how notes should be reviewed. A depth of processing framework that can lead to more functional implications is proposed for reassessing and for redirecting the investigation of notetaking and review. Essentially, the framework specifies that levels of notetaking and/or review should be manipulated and examined with regard to levels of learning outcomes. Presently, few studies conform to these guidelines, but those that do provide more specific instructional implications. This article concludes with an account of these implications and with guidelines for investigating depth of processing during notetaking and review.
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Twelve subjects who are not touch typists, but have a median of ten years experience using computer keyboards performed two writing tasks: writing a short memorized passage and copying a four paragraph passage. Subjects performed each task once using a pen and paper and once using a display oriented text-editor. Typing speed was over five words per minute (wpm) faster than handwriting for both memorized and copied passages. Typing and writing were each about ten words per minute faster from memory than from copy. The number of errors was greater when typing from copy than in any other condition. These results suggest that for experienced two-finger typists, typing from a display-oriented document processor can be faster than handwriting.
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This study examined the relationship between lecture notetaking behaviors and academic ability and the relationship among lecture notetaking behaviors, information-processing ability, and more global measures of ability (i.e., GPA and ACT scores). Previous research had not investigated working-memory ability and specific notetaking behaviors. Four types of information were gathered from the 32 undergraduate students participating in this experiment: (a) score on a test of information-processing ability, (b) analyses of notes taken during a designated lecture, (c) score on a test pertaining to that lecture, and (d) score on a course exam covering several other lectures. In addition, GPA and ACT scores were drawn from each student's records. Results confirmed that amount of notetaking is related to academic achievement and established that ability to hold and manipulate prepositional knowledge in working memory is related to the number of words, complex propositions, and main ideas recorded in notes. In fact, stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated that this information-processing ability was a more significant predictor of complex propositions and words recorded in notes than were global measures of ability such as GPA or ACT scores. This research is of practical importance because pedagogical activities may reduce cognitive strain associated with notetaking and because information-processing ability is, in part, controllable.
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Processing speed, working memory capacity, and fluid intelligence were assessed in a large sample (N = 214) of children, adolescents, and young adults (ages 7 to 19 years) Results of path analyses revealed that almost half of the age-related increase in fluid intelligence was mediated by developmental changes in processing speed and working memory and nearly three fourths of the improvement in working memory was mediated by developmental changes in processing speed Moreover, even when age-related differences in speed, working memory and fluid intelligence were statistically controlled, individual differences in speed had a direct effect on working memory capacity which, in turn was a direct determinant of individual differences in fluid intelligence