Question

The pen is mightier than the keyboard. Is longhand note-taking
more effective for learning than taking notes on a laptop? Researchers at
two universities studied this issue- In one of the studies, 65 students
listened to five talks. Students were randomly assigned either a laptop or a
notebook for purposes of taking notes. Assume that 33 students were
assigned to use laptops and 32 longhand. Whether taking notes on a laptop
or by hand in a notebook, students were instructed to use their nonnal
note-taking strategy. Thirty minutes after the lectures, participants were
tested with conceptual application questions based on the lectures- Those
taking notes by hand performed better than those taking notes on a laptop.
Why is instructing students to use their normal note-taking strategy a
problem if the goal is to determine the effect on learning of note-taking on
a laptop as compared to note-taking by hand?

Answer 1

Because by forcing them to use their normal note taking strategy, you are not allowing the actual effect of laptop note taking to manifest itself in its natural way. For eg, a student who takes laptop notes will be forced to follow the exact same method as the one used when he/she takes longhand notes, as a result, laptop note taking will not play any role on student's learning and hence both sets of students will essentially be affected by the same note taking strategy.