What’s more notable: Typing or handwriting? An exploration of student preference on cognitive load in note-taking strategies
Date
2024
Authors
Sermer, Alexandra
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Abstract
The present study investigated the impact of student preference for notetaking methods (handwriting or typing) on notetaking performance due to cognitive demand. Participants (N=12) were undergraduate students enrolled at a university in Western Canada. Using two TED Talk lectures, notetaking performance was assessed by analyzing the quality of taken notes and recall ability. Cognitive demand was measured by assessing working memory through a digit span task. To address the research questions, a series of Mann-Whitney U tests and profiling of descriptive data was performed. Results indicated that notetaking preference had little impact on notetaking performance or working memory. These findings suggest that choosing notetaking methods according to preference may not necessarily result in better performance. Rather it is possible that factors such as individual cognitive ability or contextual demands would be more important to consider. Future research is needed to further explore the complex relationship between student preference, individual cognitive ability and notetaking tasks to better inform educational practices.
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Keywords
Notetaking, Handwriting, Typing, Cognitive demand, Student preference