The Effects of Notetaking and Subsequent Use on Long‐term Recall

Abstract

The notes of a group of first-year psychology students, which were taken in a lecture on theories of intelligence, were photocopied and analysed. The students were given a questionnaire three weeks later to establish what use they might have made of their notes in the intervening period and their attitudes to notetaking in general. This was immediately followed by a factual recall test. The questionnaire results indicated that the majority of students had made little use of their notes once the lecture was over, but intercorrelations between attitudes to notetaking, the number of words noted and subsequent use of notes were all significantly related to test performance. Combining these measures resulted in even higher correlations with test scores. Men and women students did not differ significantly on any of the measures taken, but women students performed significantly better on the recall test.

Essay-writing: what really counts?

“…Although 81% used lecture notes it was interesting to see that only 38% used references given by lecturers. This finding is in line with similar results in a study by Norton (1981) where only 20% of students followed up references given in a lecture. As far as sources of material were concerned, the evidence in this report indicates that students did tend to use a fairly wide variety with over half using four or more and 13% using as many as six or seven.…”

Cognitive effort during note taking

“…An example of abbreviating procedures used by the same undergraduate student in first language (French) and in second language (English) Lombardi, 1985;Barnett, Di Vesta, & Rogozinski, 1981;Kiewra et al, 1991;Kiewra, DuBois, Christian, & McShane, 1988;Morgan, Lilley, & Boreham, 1988;Norton, 1981;Norton & Hartley, 1986;Nye, Crooks, Powley, & Tripp, 1984;Peck & Hannafin, 1983;Russell, Caris, Harris, & Hendricson, 1983;Slotte & Lonka, 1999;Spires, 1993). However, notetakers must endeavour to learn how to note (Stahl, King, & Henk, 1991), more especially because they often take notes with difficulty (Suristky, 1992).…”

Can students be helped to learn how to learn? An evaluation of an Approaches to Learning programme for first year degree students

“…The programme was run entirely by the first author, a full time lecturer in the psychology department, with a long term research interest in student learning and study skills (see Norton, 1981, Norton and Hartley, 1986, and Norton, 1990. All the other lecturers in the psychology department were given a copy of the workshop programme and asked to encourage their students to attend regularly.…”