邓杨周

Many students have given up taking class notes by hand. Instead， they type on laptop or tablet computers. But scientists say that that method is less effective. If you need to remember something， write it. Writing notes by hand is much better for long-term memory of ideas， or conceptual information.

许多学生做笔记不用手写，而是记在笔记本或者平板电脑上。但是科学家们表示，这样记笔记效果不佳。如果你需要记住一些东西，就写下来。用手写笔记更有利于概念信息的长时记忆。

Turn off your computer if you want to remember something. Computers can be distracting. Computers provide the chance to send a quick message to a friend， check a sports’ score， shop or watch a funny cat video. It is really hard to resist a funny cat video. But computers may hurt performance in school， called academic performance.

如果你想记住一些东西就关掉你的电脑。电脑会分散你的注意力。你可以用电脑给朋友发消息，查看体育比分，购物或是观看有趣的猫咪视频。而我们真的很难抗拒有趣的猫咪视频。但是电脑可能会影响你在学校的表现，也就是学业成绩。

Students who type notes on a keyboard often type what the professor says word-for-word. They may type without really thinking about what they are typing. These electronic notes contained more words. But scientists say it leads to “mindless transcription”.

學生使用键盘记笔记，经常会逐字逐句打出教授说的话。他们可能对自己敲打键盘写下的内容没有进行过真正的思考。这些电子笔记包含了更多单词。但是科学家表示，他们会导致“盲目抄录”。

However， students taking notes by hand need to first process the information they hear. Then they record just the main points， or summarize. They use fewer words. This is because people usually write slower than they type. This process of summarizing information leads to a deeper understanding.

然而，学生们通过手写记笔记要先处理他们所听到的信息。然后他们记下的只是要点或者总结。他们用的文字更少。这是因为人们写字通常比打字要慢。这个总结信息的过程会引发深层次理解。

In the study， students listened to a teacher and then took a test. Some took notes by typing on a computer. The others took notes by writing them down. Both groups performed about the same in remembering facts. But students who typed their notes did much worse on conceptual questions. Also， researchers found that those who wrote their notes remembered conceptual information better a week later.

在这个研究中，学生听老师讲课然后参加考试。一部分学生用电脑记笔记，另一部分则用手写记笔记。两组学生记忆事实的表现大致相同，但在电脑上记笔记的学生在概念性问题做得更差。并且，研究人员发现，用手记笔记的学生，在一周之后仍能更好地记住概念信息。

Scientists know that students probably will still use their laptops and tablets in class. But they suggest using some of the available technologies for writing notes by hand on computer screens.

科学家知道可能仍然有学生在课堂上用他们的笔记本或者平板电脑记笔记，但是他们建议，使用适当技术在电脑屏幕上手写笔记。