Writing by hand causes you to memorize things better, according to a study

The debate about whether it is better to study with a tablet or with a pen and paper has been in the limelight for years. A study conducted in Japan indicates that writing on paper makes the brain memorize information better, but the results are not definitive. Writing by hand causes you to memorize things better, according to a study.

Since the advent of smartphones and tablets and the daily lives of so many people, many students have chosen to radically change their study methods, replacing the pen and paper with a keyboard and a screen, or a tablet and a touchpen. And this has generated a lot of debate, especially within the family environment.

And it is that, the youngest tend to prefer to develop their studies using electronic devices, while the older people tend to opt for more traditional methods. although it is possible that the most interesting thing is to choose to combine both methods.

There is no absolute truth on this subject, but now, a study indicates that writing on paper could make it easier for you to memorize what you write, optimizing the time you use when studying. This study has been carried out by the University of Tokyo, and although its results do not allow to establish in an absolute way the superiority of this format over the electronic one, its results are most interesting.

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And, the study indicates that the use of paper promotes the acquisition of coding information and spatial information that the brain can use as an information retrieval track, which leads to greater brain activation than if a tablet were used.

This study was conducted by separating subjects into groups with paper and pencil, tablet and touch pen, and smartphone. The results of this test have led to the hypothesis that the hippocampus better integrates the information it collects from paper into the brain, since it provides more fixed cues for the coding of memory.

"Digital tools have a smooth up and down scrolling and a standardized arrangement of text and image size, just like on a web page. But if you remember a textbook printed on paper, you can close your eyes and view a photo at the bottom of the page on the left side, as well as the notes you wrote down in the bottom margin, "

Although these results are by no means definitive, they reveal a greater activation of the brain when writing on paper compared to the use of electronic devices, at least in the sample of subjects chosen. So, if you want to know what is best for you, the best way to find out is by trying different study methods to determine which method you memorize or assimilate the most content with.