Several studies have shown in the past that both children and adults learn more and remember better when they write by hand. Now another study confirms the exact same thing: choosing to write by hand instead of using the keyboard leads to better learning and better memory.
The key?
The human brain is more active when writing by hand than when typing on a computer keyboard, laptop or any other computing device.
Although each person has their preferred method of writing notes and to-do lists , our brain retains information better after we have written it. It’s a pretty good incentive to get old school and always carry a journal or planner.
Why does writing things by hand affect the brain in this way?
When we write to the computer we use our fine motor skills in a more limited way than when we write by hand. Using a pencil / pen and paper is a deeper sensory experience than playing a keyboard. Writing each letter by hand requires more writing skills than on the computer. The combination of motor skills, tactile sensation, and visual perception when writing by hand actually reinforces the natural learning process.
In the latest study, both in 2017 and now in 2020, researchers used EEG to track and record brain wave activity. The participants wore a cap with more than 250 connected electrodes whose sensors are really sensitive and capture the electrical activity that takes place in the brain when it is activated.
The results showed that the brains of young adults and children are much more active when writing by hand than when typing on a keyboard.
“The use of pencil and paper gives the brain more ‘hooks’ to hang its memories. Handwriting creates much more activity in the sensorimotor parts of the brain. Many senses are activated by pressing the pencil on the paper, seeing the letters you write and listen to the sound you make when you write. These sensory experiences create contact between different parts of the brain and open the brain to learn. We both learn better and remember better, “explains Audrey Van der Meer, leader of the work that collects the magazine Frontiers in Psychology .
Keyboard or pencil?
Van der Meer emphasizes the importance of children having the challenge of drawing and writing at an early age , especially in school because, despite the fact that digital learning has many positive aspects, handwriting training has many more.
“Given the development of recent years, we run the risk of one or more generations losing the ability to write by hand. Our research and that of others show that this would be a very unfortunate consequence” of increased digital activity, says Meer .
Referencia: Eva Ose Askvik et al. The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults, Frontiers in Psychology (2020). DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01810
