[mig39]

In education, that's called "multiple means of representation." If you just listen to a lecture, you will remember a bit of it. If there are visuals along with the lecture, you'll remember some more. If you write stuff down, type stuff out, discuss it with a group, you'll remember even more.

I take handwritten notes all the time, but rarely have to refer back to them.

[Wowfunhappy]

> In education, that's called "multiple means of representation." If you just listen to a lecture, you will remember a bit of it. If there are visuals along with the lecture, you'll remember some more. If you write stuff down, type stuff out, discuss it with a group, you'll remember even more.

However, that doesn't explain why the effect is stronger for handwriting vs typing.

My personal belief is that this is learned behavior, ie most of us were taught to take notes by hand at an early age and that leads to brain treating them a certain way.

[tomjakubowski]

Yeah, same. Very rarely return to my notes. Writing the note and maybe glancing back at it a few times "in the moment" is enough to help with retention later on.