Notetaking in non‐academic settings: a review

Abstract

There is considerable research on notetaking in academic settings but relatively little of it in nonacademic ones. This paper reviews the effects of notetaking in legal situations, counselling and interviewing, and assesses the usefulness of notetaking as a memory aid for older people and as a prospective memory device for brain-injured persons. The results suggest that: notetaking has no significant effect on recall in 'real-life' jury situations; there is some evidence that notetaking by counsellors in counselling sessions might be harmful for clients; there is some evidence that notetaking in interviews can reduce bias in decision making; there is some evidence that notetaking is helpful for older persons; and that too little research has been conducted on the use of notetaking as a device for aiding the prospective memory for brain-injured persons to reach any firm conclusions. The general limitations of the research are reviewed and implications for future work considered.

Note-Taking of English Lessons at Tertiary Level: a Context of Bangladesh

“…The use of note-taking for storing transmitted information often overshadows another important rolereflection. Notetaking is an effective information-processing tool that is commonly used both in daily life and in many professions (Hartley, 2002). In line with the studies mentioned above, the student-participants of this study have indicated that they use the notes taken during lectures as an aid to prepare comprehensive notes for examination purposes.…”

The selective nature of memory: some effects of taking a verbal record A response to A. Plaut

“…Before exploring the cognitive processes operating when note taking occurs let us first look at some real and perceived costs and benefits of note taking in general. In contrast with some of the views expressed in Plaut's paper, the literature does support the view that note taking is beneficial not only for students endeavouring to capture their lecturer's thoughts (see Hartley 2002) but also in overcoming preconceived ideas when facing an interview situation. For example, Mican and Dipboye (1994), who devised a simulated job interview scenario, found that participants who were given biased information, whether positive, negative or neutral about prospective employees, resulted in those biases being carried forward to ‘selection’ decisions by their 132 undergraduate interviewers.…”

Flexibility of orthographic and graphomotor coordination during a handwritten copy task: effect of time pressure

“…For instance, high time pressure tends to have negative effects on behavior (e.g., effectiveness of decision making; Zakay and Wooler, 1984 ), whereas far from systematically impairing cognitive processing, moderate time pressure may even enhance it (e.g., creativity; Baer and Oldham, 2006 ). Moreover, writing under time pressure is a situation that is frequently encountered (Hartley, 2002 ; Connelly et al, 2005 ; Piolat et al, 2005 ), and our participants may thus have been familiar with this constraint.…”