A review of note-taking: The encoding-storage paradigm and beyond

This review article investigates the encoding and storage functions of note-taking. The encoding function suggests that the process of taking notes, which are not reviewed, is facilitative. Research specifying optimal note-taking behaviors is discussed as are several means for facilitating note-taking, such as viewing a lecture multiple times, note-taking on a provided framework, or generative note-taking activities. The storage function suggests that the review of notes also is facilitative. Research addressing particular review behaviors, such as organization and elaboration, is discussed as are the advantages of reviewing provided notes, borrowed notes, or notes organized in a matrix form. In addition, cognitive factors related to note-taking and review are discussed. The article concludes with an alternative means for defining and investigating the functions of note-taking, and with implications for education and for research.     

The Effect of Encoding and an External Memory Device on Note Taking

College students were randomly assigned to seven note-taking and review conditions in order to determine the relative importance of the functions of encoding and either an externally provided or a personally produced memory device. Results of the post-test showed that a combination of encoding and reviewing either one’s own notes or an outline of the lecture produced the best recall scores, while either personally encoding notes or being provided with a lecture outline during the lecture accompanied by “mental” review produced the least recall. The findings are discussed in terms of practical suggestions for professors and their students.     

The role of time and cuing in a college lecture

The lecture process was studied systematically with the following objectives: to reexamine the effects of time upon note-taking and immediate retention, to compare the relative effectiveness of spoken and written cues, and to investigate cuing schedules. Students were asked to view one of a series of videotaped lectures in which certain statements were highlighted by either spoken or written cues. The contents of students' notes and assessments of immediate recall and recognition provided the dependent measures. Students recorded increasingly less information in their notes over the course of the lecture, but retention of material from different portions of the lecture was essentially the same. Written-cued statements were recorded more frequently and retained better than statements preceded by spoken cues. Finally, the different schedules of cuing were shown to have subtle effects upon note-taking and recall.     

Immediate and Delayed Recall of Lecture Material as a Function of Note Taking

Abstract

Randomly chosen halves of an undergraduate class were instructed either to take notes in their usual manner or to refrain from note taking while listening to a guest lecturer. Immediately following the lecture, notes were collected and a quiz on the lecture was administered. Ten days later, a second quiz was administered. Statistical analysis indicated that the note-taking group performed significantly better overall than the no-notes group on both the immediate and the delayed quizzes. Both groups showed a significant decline in performance on the latter quiz. Alternative explanations for these results were examined.     

A more equitable account of the note-taking functions in learning from lecture and from text

Previous research investigating the encoding, encoding-plus-storage, and extermal-storage functions of note taking has failed to equate processing opportunities among the groups. The present studies did so by having the encoding group take notes on two occasions without review, the encoding-plus-storage group take notes one time and review notes the next, and the external-storage group twice review a set of borrowed notes. Three forms of note taking were used: conventional, and note taking on skeletal and matrix frameworks. In both Experiment 1, involving lecture learning, and Experiment 2, involving text learning, an advantage was found for the encoding-plus-storage function on tests involving factual-recall and recognition performance but not on tests measuring higher-order performance. With respect to note-taking forms, no advantage existed for any form when information was acquired from lecture. When text material was used there was some advantage for conventional notes and a clear advantage for not taking notes at all, but instead twice reading the material. These findings were explained relative to observed note-taking behaviors, the opportunity for review, and the processing demands proposed by the combination of reading and note taking, particularly when notes must be classified into an existing framework.     

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

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 note-taking, 3) the importance of individual differences, and 4) the testing procedure used in the empirical studies. This review highlights the fragmented nature of the current literature. In the second part of this review five forms of cognitive load that are induced by note-taking are distinguished. Cognitive load theory is used to integrate the divergent results in the literature. Based on the review, it is concluded that cognitive load theory provides a useful framework for future theory development and experimental work.     

Note-Taking and Memory in Different Media Environments

Through this study the authors investigated undergraduate students’ memory recall in three media environments with three note-taking options, following an A x B design with nine experiments. The three environments included no-distraction, auditory-distraction, and auditory–visual-distraction; while the three note-taking options included no-note-taking, taking-notes-on-paper, and taking-notes-on-computer. The results of word recalls from 21 participants showed significant interactions between media environments and note-taking options. In the no-distraction environment, the participants had better word recall taking notes on paper than taking notes on computer or not taking notes. However, in the auditory–visual-distraction environment, the participants had better word recall with no note taking than taking notes on computer or taking notes on paper. The participants’ comments provided insights for implications for learning in different media environments.     

Laptop versus longhand note taking: effects on lecture notes and achievement

There has been a shift in college classrooms from students recording lecture notes using a longhand pencil-paper medium to using laptops. The present study investigated whether note-taking medium (laptop, longhand) influenced note taking and achievement when notes were recorded but not reviewed (note taking’s process function) and when notes were recorded and reviewed (note taking’s product function). One unique aspect of the study was determining how laptop and longhand note taking influence the recording of lecture images in notes and image-related achievement. Note-taking results showed that laptop note takers recorded more notes (idea units and words) and more verbatim lecture strings than did longhand note takers who, in turn, recorded more visual notes (signals and images) than did laptop note takers. Achievement results showed that when taking laptop notes, the process function of note taking was more beneficial than the product function of note taking (i.e., better image-related learning and similar text-related learning). When taking longhand notes, the product function of note taking was more beneficial than the process function of note taking (i.e., better text-related learning and similar image-related learning). Achievement findings suggest that the optimal note-taking medium depends on the nature of the lecture and whether notes are reviewed.     

Optimising the use of note-taking as an external cognitive aid for increasing learning

Taking notes is of uttermost importance in academic and commercial use and success. Different techniques for note-taking utilise different cognitive processes and strategies. This experimental study examined ways to enhance cognitive performance via different note-taking techniques. By comparing performances of traditional, linear style note-taking with alternative non-linear technique, we aimed to examine the efficiency and importance of different ways of taking notes. Twenty-six volunteer adult learners from an information management course participated in this study. Cognitive performance scores from a traditional linear note-taking group were compared with another group by using a commercially available non-linear note-taking technique. Both groups were tested in two settings: after a classroom lecture and a panel forum discussion. Tasks included measures on story comprehension, memory, complexity of mental representations and metacognitive skills. Data analysis revealed that the non-linear note-takers were significantly better than the linear group both in terms of the quantity and the quality of the learned material. This study demonstrates the importance of using cognitively compatible note-taking techniques. It identifies the cognitive mechanisms behind effective note-taking and knowledge representation. Using such techniques enables deeper understanding and more integrated knowledge management.     

Note-Taking Interventions for College Students: A Synthesis and Meta-Analysis of the Literature

ABSTRACT

Although note taking is frequently described as an important skill for postsecondary success, there have been few note-taking intervention studies involving multiple sessions spanning more than one week. In a systematic search, we identified seven peer-reviewed articles reporting 10 intervention studies published from 1990–2014. The only single-case design study addressed taking notes from texts, but four treatment-comparison studies that taught note taking during lectures assessed students' abilities when taking notes from texts. The remaining four treatment-comparison and one single-group design studies focused solely on note taking during lectures. Three types of notes were represented in the corpus: guided (seven studies), split-page (two studies), and self-restructured (one study). In comparing students who did and did not receive note-taking instruction, Hedges's g effect sizes on outcome measures of content learning and note quality ranged from ?0.35 to 2.11. Across nine group design studies, the weighted average effect was 0.54 (CI₉₅ = 0.47 to 0.62). The weighted average Tau-U of the single-case design was 1.00 (CI₉₅ = 0.60 to 1.40).     

Student note-taking related to university examination performance

Student note-taking is an almost universal activity among university students, yet few naturalistic studies have examined relationships between note-taking practices and subsequent examination performance. Complete sets of notes on an introductory psychology course, involving 75 lectures presented by ten instructors, were obtained from nineteen male and nineteen female students. Notes on ten selected lectures (one per instructor) were analysed, and information derived about class attendance and the quantity, organization, and presentation of the notes. Variables based on this information were then correlated with performance on two three-hour final examination papers (one multiple-choice, one essay). High correlations were found between the quantity of notes and examination performance. Surprisingly, these correlations increased in subsamples consisting of those students who attended class most diligently. The correlations involving the multiple-choice examination tended to be higher than those involving the essay examination, most probably because of wider sampling of lecture content and a more factual orientation in the multiple-choice examination. The results appear to conflict with the advice given in student study guides, many of which suggest that students should be very selective and concise in their note-taking.     

Multimedia,It's How You Use It

SUMMARY

The current study chronicles what one professor learned from teaching a distance education course with and without the aid of PowerPoint multimedia presentation software. It compares student ratings of three lectures from the same classes by the same professor; the first, a traditional lecture without any audiovisual aids; the second, a lecture supplemented by PowerPoint notes outlining the lecture; and finally, a multimedia lecture utilizing PowerPoint notes with pictures, music and animations. Students reacted no differently to any of the presentations when delivered by an experienced teacher. The students did, however, prefer PowerPoint multimedia to PowerPoint outline presentations. Suggestions for the optimal uses of presentation software are provided.     

Note Taking on Trial: A Legal Application of Note-Taking Research

This article is about note taking, but it is not an exhaustive review of note-taking literature. Instead, it portrays the application of note-taking research to an unusual and important area of practice—the law. I was hired to serve as an expert witness on note taking in a legal case that hinged, in part, on the completeness and accuracy of handwritten meeting notes. Based on my own research and that of others, I rendered three opinions about handwritten notes: (a) They omit most of what is said, (b) they omit details, context, and essential qualifiers, and (c) they contain inaccuracies or vague statements. This article tells the story of how I came to investigate note taking, become an expert witness, and render those three opinions. It concludes with a call to investigate note taking in non-academic settings such as meetings and to uncover ways to boost and improve note-taking methods.     

The Relationship of First-Grade Readiness to Third- and Fourth-Grade Achievement

Abstract

In meaningful learning tasks the acquisition process is influenced by the way in which the individual learner interprets and encodes the material. Early attempts to recall written materials largely determine subsequent retention, even when the learner's errors are corrected. To provide an indication of how information was interpreted and encoded by learners, adult students were asked to write notes on a meaningful prose extract they heard, and they were later asked to attempt recall. Whereas the meaningful items recorded in a subject's notes had a .34 probability of recall one week later, items not recorded in notes were recalled on only .047 of occasions, suggesting that the notes learners make provide a useful indication of the products of individual encoding processes In meaningful verbal learning and memory.     

The College Teaching Profession

Abstract

This article describes how a traditional biology lecture course was transformed into an interactive class. A review the activities used, changes made to grading policy, and practical tips for integration of active learning in the classroom are provided. Analysis of student responses to course assessments indicated that active learning experiences helped them focus on and understand key concepts of the course. Students performed as well as, or better than, those in previous classes that used a more traditional lecture technique. Active learning enriches the classroom learning experience and can be incorporated into a large lecture setting with relative ease.     

The Effects of Strategic Notetaking on the Recall and Comprehension of Lecture Information for High School Students with Learning Disabilities

This investigation examined the effects of strategic notetaking on the recall and comprehension of high school students with learning disabilities (LD) or educable mental retardation (EMR). Twenty-six students with high incidence disabilities (LD or EMR) were randomly assigned by grade and disability to either an experimental or control group. Using strategic notetaking, students in the experimental group were taught to independently take notes while viewing a videotaped lecture. Students who were taught strategic notetaking scored significantly higher on measures of immediate free recall, long-term free recall, comprehension, and number of notes recorded than students in the control group who used conventional notetaking. The limitations of the research and implications of this technique for classroom application are discussed.     

Difficult Words and the Beginner

ABSTRACT

The authors investigated the effects of a 5-week note-taking skills instructional program on note-taking and reading comprehension performance of elementary students. The participants included 349 fourth-grade students from 2 elementary schools in Taiwan. The Note-Taking Instruction group received approximately 40 min of note-taking skills instruction per week for 5 weeks in contrast to the free note-taking group and the free-recall writing group who did not receive any instruction. A note-taking evaluation task and a comprehension test were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction on students’ performance in note taking and reading comprehension, respectively. The study yielded 2 findings: first, teaching students a note-taking strategy significantly improved their performance in note taking and reading comprehension, and second, poor readers showed the greatest gains in note-taking skills with instruction.     

Both handwriting speed and selective attention are important to lecture note-taking

The primary purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the relationship of handwriting speed, fine motor fluency, speed of verbal access, language comprehension, working memory, and attention (executive control; selective) to note-taking and all of the aforementioned variables to test performance (written recall). A second purpose was to determine whether one or both of the hypothesized components of handwriting speed (as based in the children’s literature), fine motor speed or speed access to verbal codes (SAVCs), are responsible for the relationship of handwriting speed to notes. Results indicated that handwriting speed and selective attention were the only variables significantly related to notes and note-taking skill was the only variable that was significantly related to test performance. In a secondary analysis, we tested whether fine motor fluency and SAVC were related to handwriting speed. Handwriting speed was regressed on all of the other independent variables. Only fine motor fluency and SAVC were related to handwriting speed. The implications of these results for conceptualizations of note-taking and handwriting speed are discussed.     

汉英交替传译中的笔记策略

近些年来,人们对汉英交替传译研究这一课题越来越关注,笔记策略也自然成了人们关注的焦点。该文通过对现有国内外有关汉英交传笔记方法的研究,总结和梳理出一套可行的汉英交传笔记策略。从而提出:要在熟练所有笔记方法的基础上,反复地练习,不断的修改和完善,最终总结出一套适合自己的笔记方法。     

Note-taking within MetaTutor: interactions between an intelligent tutoring system and prior knowledge on note-taking and learning

Hypermedia learning environments (HLE) unevenly present new challenges and opportunities to learning processes and outcomes depending on learner characteristics and instructional supports. In this experimental study, we examined how one such HLE—MetaTutor, an intelligent, multi-agent tutoring system designed to scaffold cognitive and metacognitive self-regulated learning (SRL) processes—interacts with learner’s prior domain knowledge to affect their note-taking activities and subsequent learning outcomes. Sixty (N = 60) college students studied with MetaTutor for 120 min and took notes on hypermedia content of the human circulatory system. Log-files and screen recordings of learner-system interactions were used to analyze notes for several quantitative and qualitative variables. Results show that most note-taking was a verbatim copy of instructional content, which negatively related to the post-test measure of learning. There was an interaction between prior knowledge and pedagogical agent scaffolding, such that low prior knowledge students took a greater quantity of notes compared to their high prior knowledge counterparts, but only in the absence of MetaTutor SRL scaffolding; when agent SRL scaffolding was present, the note-taking activities of low prior knowledge students were statistically equivalent to the number of notes taken by their high prior knowledge counterparts. Theoretical and instructional design implications are discussed.