According to statistics, most studies on the relationship between handwriting and memory show that people remember what they have handwritten better than what they type on a computer.
Think back to the last time you wrote a note or made a shopping list. Chances are, it wasn’t with pen and paper.
Over the past decade, keyboards and screens have quietly replaced handwriting in our daily routines, from classrooms to office meetings. Some schools around the world have even completely stopped teaching handwriting.
However, research shows that writing on paper provides cognitive benefits that digital tools cannot replace.
Naomi Susan Baron, Professor Emerita of Linguistics at American University in Washington D.C., stated: “Statistically, most studies on the relationship between handwriting and memory show that people remember what they have handwritten better than what they type on a computer.”
Engagement of Multiple Senses
(Image source: The Guardian).
The benefits of handwriting may partly stem from the engagement of multiple senses during the writing process.
Mellissa Prunty, a reader in occupational therapy at Brunel University London, noted: “Holding a pen with your fingers, pressing it against the paper, and moving your hand to create letters is a complex cognitive-motor skill that requires a lot of our attention.”
“This level of deep processing, which includes converting heard sounds into letter forms, has been shown to support reading and spelling in children,” Prunty added.
Adults also “benefit” from the demanding nature of handwriting.
A study involving 42 adults learning Arabic found that those who learned the letters by handwriting recognized the language faster. They pronounced newly learned words better than those who learned new letters by typing or merely looking at them.
Robert Wiley, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and co-author of the study, stated: “We think that… handwriting activates different pathways leading to the same concept.”
He explained that learning a new word involves connecting an abstract symbol with information at the visual, motor, and auditory levels. “Handwriting may activate more of these ‘multidimensional’ connections than typing does.”
Through a survey of 205 adolescents in the U.S. and Europe, Baron found that many students were more focused and remembered better when drafting handwritten texts instead of hitting the keyboard. This suggests that tactile feedback plays a crucial role in how we absorb information.
Lisa Aziz-Zadeh, a professor at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, remarked: “The human brain has evolved to process sensory information and movement through evolutionary processes. The brain regions that process these sensations and movements are now engaged in higher cognitive functions.”
Benefits of Handwriting Over Typing
To understand this better, we can visualize our brain as a road system, as Audrey van der Meer, a professor of neuropsychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, explained.
She noted that the “brain network” in children resembles winding roads hidden within a forest. With practice and experience, these paths can become highways connecting different parts of the brain to transmit information quickly and efficiently.
(Image source: Today’s Modern Educator)
In a study published last year, van der Meer and co-author Ruud van der Weel examined brain scans of 36 college students performing writing “tasks.”
The students were asked to write using a digital pen on a touchscreen device or to type on a keyboard. The brain activity of participants was recorded using electroencephalography.
“The most surprising finding was that the entire brain is active when they write by hand, while only much smaller regions [of the brain] are active when they type,” van der Meer said. “This indicates that when you write by hand, you are using most of your brain to get the job done.”
As a result, researchers encourage everyone to persist with handwriting skills. In Norway, many schools have stopped teaching handwriting and allow students to read and write on iPads—van der Meer hopes this trend can change through her research.
She stated: “I believe we should incorporate at least a minimal amount of handwriting into the elementary school curriculum because it is very beneficial for brain development.”
In the U.S., handwriting has been removed from the “Common Core Standards”—an education reform program implemented in public schools since 2014. However, some states have decided to reintroduce handwriting into the curriculum due to its learning benefits.
Van der Meer also advises adults to use pen and paper. “Practicing handwriting regularly is a very good exercise for the brain,” she stated. “It’s like maintaining a busy road.”
