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of Victoria
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Faculty of Graduate Studies

Alexandra Sermer

  • B.A. H (University of Guelph, 2021)
Notice of the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Arts

Topic

What’s More Notable: Typing or Handwriting? An Exploration of Student Preference on Cognitive Load in Note-Taking Strategies

Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies

Date & location

  • Tuesday, June 4, 2024

  • 1:00 P.M.

  • Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

  • Dr. Mariel Miller, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies, University of Victoria (Co-Supervisor)

  • Dr. Lucinda Brown, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies, UVic (Co-Supervisor)

  • Dr. Gina Harrison, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies, UVic (Member) 

External Examiner

  • Dr. Michael Paskevicius, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Victoria 

Chair of Oral Examination

  • Dr. Evert Lindquist, School of Public Administration, UVic 

Abstract

The present study investigated the impact of student preference for notetaking methods (handwriting or typing) on notetaking performance due to cognitive demand. Participants (N=12) were undergraduate students enrolled at a university in Western Canada. Using two TED Talk lectures, notetaking performance was assessed by analyzing the quality of taken notes and recall ability. Cognitive demand was measured by assessing working memory through a digit span task. To address the research questions, a series of Mann-Whitney U tests and profiling of descriptive data was performed. Results indicated that notetaking preference had little impact on notetaking performance or working memory. These findings suggest that choosing notetaking methods according to preference may not necessarily result in better performance. Rather it is possible that factors such as individual cognitive ability or contextual demands would be more important to consider. Future research is needed to further explore the complex relationship between student preference, individual cognitive ability and notetaking tasks to better inform educational practices.

Key Words: Notetaking, handwriting, longhand, cognitive demand, student preference

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