An integrative review of the cognitive costs and benefits of note-taking

Abstract

List of most important changes made:-Definition of research aim and research questions in the Introduction.-Explanation of the origination of the analytic criteria in the description of the literature review. -Shortening of the sections on lecture speed, individual differences, and type of questions.-Addition/rewriting of concluding paragraph for lecture speed, structure of lecture material, note-taking style, and structure of note-taking. -Inclusion of several recent articles: Svinicki (2017), Reed, Rimel, and Hallett (2016), Olive and Barbier (2017). Abstract. 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 notetaking, 3) the importance of individual differences, and 4) the testing procedure used in the empirical studies. Our review highlights the fragmented nature of the current literature. In the second part of this review we distinguish five forms of cognitive load that are induced by notetaking. Cognitive load theory is used to integrate the divergent results in the literature. We conclude that cognitive load theory provides a useful framework for future theory development and experimental work. Keywords.Cognitive load, encoding effect, note-taking, memory, information processing.An integrative review of the cognitive costs and benefits of note-takingThe density of information presented to students increases as they proceed from primary school to secondary school to university. Students are required to comprehend and acquire more information in the same amount of time. To cope with this increasing demand on their information-processing capabilities, students frequently engage in note-taking to improve how much information they remember (Christopoulos, Rohwer, & Thomas, 1987). For decades, notetaking has been an analogue activity, with students taking notes using pen and paper (i.e.longhand note-taking). The increasing availability of portable electronic devices has changed the way in which students take their notes. Longhand note-taking is now considered 'traditional' note-taking (Lin & Bigenho, 2011;Reimer, Brimhall, Cao, & O'Reilly, 2009), while typing is a more modern form of note-taking.Memory benefits of note-taking have been classified into two groups (Di Vesta & Gray, 1972). On the one hand, note-taking offers long term benefits by having notes available for review and rehearsal. This is known as the external storage effect of note-taking. On the other hand, note-taking offers immediate benefits as students taking notes engage in a deeper level of processing. This is known as the encoding effect of note-taking. The beneficial effects of notetaking have been well-established (e.g. Barnett, Di Vesta, & Rog...

Lecture capture: Practical recommendations for students and instructors.

“…Not only that, lecture recordings can be seized as an opportunity to promote effective note-taking and it is important to integrate recording usage with other, more traditional study behaviours. Producing notes whilst listening to a lecture is a dual task, in which cognitive resources need to be allocated to either listening to the instructor or to writing down notes (Jansen et al, 2017). Thus, considerable cognitive resources need to be expended to create useful notes and lecture recordings can support better note-taking.…”

Thinking while drawing and drawing to think: Exploring ‘reflective doodling’ as a critical reflective practice in design for transitions.

“…Prior to reengaging with this 'first pass' of information, I assumed it to be a relatively 'pure' documentation of the workshop content. Discovering embodied reflections within my notes was unexpected, despite this kind of cognitive processing being common in high quality notetaking (Jansen et al, 2017). In previous discussions of the reflective doodling process I have failed to recognise this aspect of notetaking as reflection in action.…”

The predictive validities of individual working‐memory capacity profiles and note‐taking strategies on online search performance

“…Wang et al (2017) showed that taking notes can help learners shield against distractions from irrelevant information. With auxiliary note‐taking supports to prevent distraction, the Two Low WMC could also benefit from the external store function (Lin et al, 2016; Makany et al, 2009) and the encoding effect to process information to a deeper level, as suggested by Jansen et al (2017). Thus, the current study provides further support for the claim that note‐taking may help learners with low WMC during their online search.…”

“…2.2 | The effect of note-taking in general and in the context of online search performance Note-taking serves as an external store of memory to hold information and facilitate cognitive processing to avoid mental overload (Lin, Lee, Wang, & Lin, 2016;Makany, Kemp, & Dror, 2009). Besides, notetaking can help learners focus on encoding information for a deeper level of processing that enhances learning (Jansen, Lakens, & IJsselsteijn, 2017).…”