Who would have thought the subject of script could be contentious ? But , it seems this topic is dividing scientific opinion .
Last year , the journalFrontiers in Psychologypublished an clause by Norwegian scientists that promoted the power of the pen . The investigator argued that as digital equipment become increasingly unglamourous , traditional ways ofwriting by handare becoming more and more less of import , despite it being a worthful direction to learn and remember information .
In their study , the researchers analyze encephalon activity in university students when they wrote by mitt and when they typed on a keyboard . They at long last found that the hand result in significantly more luxuriant genius connectivity traffic pattern than typecast word . The results , they argued , had significant implications for memory andlearning , especially for shaver .
“ Our findings intimate that the spatiotemporal pattern from visual and proprioceptive data obtained through the precisely controlled hand drift when using a playpen , add extensively to the brain ’s connectivity patterns that promote teach ” , the writer wrote .
“ We urge that children , from an other age , must be exposed to handwriting activities in school day to set up the neuronic connectivity convention that offer the brain with optimum conditions for learning . ”
The study was prettyimpactful , catching the aid of media groups ( include us ) and the world likewise , resulting it being covered by well-nigh 200 news outlets and have over 1,500 societal medium spot at clock time of piece of writing . Overall , the success of this article demonstrated the public ’s interest in this subject but also bolstered the idea that we can remember information better if we write it down .
However , two researchers in Spain and France have now published a reaction to this original clause in the same daybook . They take number with the Norwegian study ’s methodology and the limitations concerning their finale and interpretations .
mainly , they point out that the original study did not actually need the scholar to actuallylearnanything despite claiming that handwriting meliorate computer storage .
“ participant repeatedly wrote well - have sex words without any requirement for computer memory encryption , preclude any conclusions in term of learning , ” author Svetlana Pinet and Marieke Longcamp write .
Moreover , given that the Norse cogitation focus on grownup player , it is unclear how well the effect can be translate to an educational background withchildren .
“ [ D]rawing conclusion on learning processes in baby in a schoolroom from a lab study carry out on a group of university students that did not include any character of learning seems slippery at best , ” they add .
The authors of the rebuttal also argue that the conditions within the experimentation were not really representative of typical 1 someone would receive in the real macrocosm . In the original subject , students write intelligence from the biz Pictionary with either digital pen on a screen or by typecast on a keyboard . They were also connected to EEG machine that measured their brain body process .
These conditions are passably exotic to most people , but the act of writing was made even more unusual by the experiment ’s requirements . When writing by hired hand , students were asked to write with the playpen without lifting it from the concealment , while typing was circumscribed to their correct exponent finger , which get typing more unmanageable than how most people usually typewrite .
“ Changing accustomed type behavior to conform to the instructions might bear upon participants ' typing execution and tie in brain activity through flutter of automatized control , ” Pinet and Longcamp attention deficit disorder .
“ We wish to stress that set into question [ the Norwegian study′s ] conclusion should not be make as putting into query the grandness of handwriting ” , they write .
“ premature grounds does support a good role of script education on undivided letter recognition , word recall and word reading and writing , although long - term consequences remain to be evaluated . ”
They add that they agree there needs to be more concerted research into the deduction of write practices for teach andmemory , specially now that handwriting is receiving less attention .
Responding to this criticism , Audrey Van der Meer , one of the authors of the Norse subject field , toldThe Hechinger Reportthat the critics promote keyboards in education , so there could be an chemical element of bias here . However , she admit that her subject area did not include any learning job for her student subject field .
Van der Meer is currently carrying out new enquiry into learn among teenager who were call for to take Federal Reserve note using a penitentiary or keyboard . The students were then subject to the same test and their solution were assessed . At present , Van der Meer sees evidence that those who write by hand appear to do better than their type peer , but her analysis is on-going , and the result have not yet been published .
So the question of how of import hand is for erudition and retentivity remains unanswered . We thirstily await the results of any future studies to confirm or refute current melodic theme .
The rebuttal to the Norse article is print inFrontiers in psychological science .
