Handwriting in class seems outdated as digital technology has widely taken over learning. But a steady stream of research suggests that taking notes with pen and paper is still the best way to learn, especially for young children.
A study published in Frontiers in Psychology monitored brain activity in students taking notes and discovered that those writing by hand exhibited higher levels of electrical activity across many interconnected brain regions. The new findings suggest that while people type notes quickly without much thought, handwriting is slower and encourages active engagement with the material. This process helps students stay attentive and grasp new concepts more effectively.
To understand brain-activity differences during the two note-taking approaches, researchers fixed 256 electrodes（电极）into a hairnet to record the brain activity of36 students as they wrote or typed words displayed on a screen. When students wrote by hand, the sensors detected widespread brain connectivity across visual regions, sensory processing areas, and the motor cortex（皮层）which is responsible for body movement and sensory-motor integration and helps the brain use environmental inputs to inform a person's next action. Typing, however, showed minimal activity in these regions.
Sophia Vinci-Booher, a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University, says that the recent study highlights the tie between motor action and conceptual recognition: "When writing a word, you're using your motor system to create it. That creation is then fed back into the visual system and processed again, strengthening the action-word link."
Yadurshana Sivashankar, a psychologist at the University of Waterloo, notes that people are increasingly "off-loading" cognitive（认知的）tasks onto digital devices, such as by taking a photograph instead of committing information to memory. "If we're not actively using these areas, then they are going to deteriorate over time, whether it's memory or motor skills."
Ultimately, Vinci-Booher says, "I think there's a very strong case for engaging children in handwriting activities, especially when they're first learning about letters. There's something about involving the fine-motor system and production activities that really impacts learning."
