Dr's Casebook: Writing by hand boosts learning and memory

New research shows that writing by hand rather than using the keyboard actually helps boost learning and memory. Photo: StockAdobe

Last week I talked about posture when sitting at the computer. I was thinking about the differences between writing with a pencil or typing on the keyboard. I began by looking at the way I produce articles for the newspaper has changed over the last 40-odd years that I have been writing this column.

Dr Keith Souter writes: When I began, I used to write them out in longhand, then physically walk from my surgery to the newspaper office and hand them in to the reception desk. Then I got a portable typewriter, which I used for a few years before graduating to a word processor, and finally a computer.

Along the way, the FAX machine permitted me to send articles via the telephone landline rather than walking round to the office. Strange to think of FAX machines becoming redundant, but with the advent of emails the whole process is simplified and the article is sent into cyberspace to land on a computer screen at the touch of a keyboard button.

Yet it is the two processes of actually writing or typing that I find so interesting, because they involve different parts of the brain. New research shows that writing by hand rather than using the keyboard actually helps boost learning and memory.

A team of Norwegian researchers wanted to find out if the process of forming letters by hand influenced greater brain connectivity. To do so, the team looked at the underlying neural networks involved in writing, whether it’s with a pen and paper or a keyboard and screen.

They gathered Electroencephalogram or EEG data from three dozen university students while they repeatedly wrote something down with a digital pen in longhand or typed a word that appeared onscreen. The scientists used high-density EEGs, which measured electrical activity in the brain using a net of sensors placed over the head, and recorded for five seconds for every prompt. Amazingly, connectivity of various brain regions jumped when the study participants wrote by hand, but no change occurred when they typed.

They also found evidence that students learn more and remember better when taking handwritten lecture notes. On the other hand they concede that using a computer with a keyboard may be more practical when writing a long text or essay – or newspaper column!