What predicts skill in lecture note taking

Despite the importance of good lecture notes to test performance, very little is known about the cognitive processes that underlie effective lecture note taking. The primary purpose of the 2 studies reported (a pilot study and Study 1) was to investigate 3 processes hypothesized to be significantly related to quality of notes: transcription fluency, verbal working memory, and the ability to identify main ideas. A 2nd purpose was to replicate the findings from previous research that notes and verbal working memory were significantly related to test performance. Results indicated that transcription fluency was the only predictor of quality of notes and that quality of notes was the only significant predictor of test performance. The findings on transcription fluency extend those of the children's writing literature to indicate that transcription fluency is related to a variety of writing outcomes and suggest that interventions directed at transcription fluency may enhance lecture note taking.

[1]  R. T. Kellogg,et al.  The structure of writing processes as revealed by secondary task demands , 2002 .

[2]  A. Siegel,et al.  Acquisition of Reading Skills: Cultural Constraints and Cognitive Universals. , 1986 .

[3]  A. Baddeley.  Is working memory still working , 2001 .

[4]  A. Miyake,et al.  Individual differences in working memory: introduction to the special section. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[5]  Jeanne D. Day,et al.  The development of plans for summarizing texts. , 1983 .

[6]  Stephen L. Benton,et al.  The relationship between information-processing ability and notetaking , 1988 .

[7]  R. Mayer,et al.  Generative Effects of Note-Taking during Science Lectures. , 1986 .

[8]  Bonnie J. F. Meyer,et al.  Effects of Structure Strategy Training and Signaling on Recall of Text. , 2001 .

[9]  H. Swanson,et al.  Individual differences in children's working memory and writing skill. , 1996, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[10]  M. Just,et al.  From the SelectedWorks of Marcel Adam Just 1992 A capacity theory of comprehension : Individual differences in working memory , 2017 .

[11]  Stephen L. Benton,et al.  Qualitative aspects of notetaking and their relationship with information-processing ability and academic achievement. , 1987 .

[12]  W. D. Rohwer,et al.  Relationships among student characteristics, study activities, and achievement as a function of course characteristics* , 1987 .

[13]  Julie E. Dockrell,et al.  The slow handwriting of undergraduate students constrains overall performance in exam essays , 2005 .

[14]  Lecture Notetaking, Information-Processing, and Academic Achievement , 1992 .

[15]  Sarah Ellen Ransdell,et al.  Working memory constraints on writing quality and fluency. , 2013 .

[16]  A. Miyake,et al.  Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of Active Maintenance and Executive Control , 1999 .

[17]  Walter Schneider,et al.  Controlled and automatic human information processing: II. Perceptual learning, automatic attending and a general theory. , 1977 .

[18]  Nelson F. DuBois,et al.  Note-taking functions and techniques. , 1991 .

[19]  Randall W. Engle,et al.  Working Memory Capacity , 1986 .

[20]  R. Engle,et al.  Is working memory capacity task dependent , 1989 .

[21]  David C. Berliner,et al.  Effects of Note Taking, Memory, and Language Proficiency on Lecture Learning for Native and Nonnative Speakers of English , 1989 .

[22]  R. T. Kellogg,et al.  Concurrent activation of high- and low-level production processes in written composition , 2002, Memory & cognition.

[23]  R. Abbott,et al.  Early intervention for spelling problems: Teaching functional spelling units of varying size with a multiple-connections framework. , 1998 .

[24]  Kenn Apel,et al.  Early Development of Language by Hand: Composing, Reading, Listening, and Speaking Connections; Three Letter-Writing Modes; and Fast Mapping in Spelling , 2006, Developmental neuropsychology.

[25]  Mary Hegarty,et al.  Models of Working Memory: Models of Working Memory: Eight Questions and Some General Issues , 1999 .

[26]  John B. Black,et al.  Understanding expository text : a theoretical and practical handbook for analyzing explanatory text , 1986 .

[27]  R. Engle.  Working Memory Capacity as Executive Attention , 2002 .

[28]  M. Harris,et al.  Effect of Note Taking and Review on Recall. , 1973 .

[29]  R. T. Kellogg,et al.  Working memory components in written sentence generation. , 2004, The American journal of psychology.

[30]  L. R. Peterson,et al.  Short-term retention of individual verbal items. , 1959, Journal of experimental psychology.

[31]  John O. Willis,et al.  NEPSY: A Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment , 2008 .

[32]  S. Campbell,et al.  Contribution of Lower Order Skills to the Written Composition of College Students With and Without Dyslexia , 2006, Developmental neuropsychology.

[33]  J. Fletcher,et al.  Specific reading disability (dyslexia): what have we learned in the past four decades? , 2004, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[34]  Stephen T. Peverly,et al.  The Importance of Handwriting Speed in Adult Writing , 2006, Developmental neuropsychology.

[35]  Francis J. Di Vesta,et al.  Listening and Note Taking: II. Immediate and Delayed Recall as Functions of Variations in Thematic Continuity, Note Taking, and Length of Listening-Review Intervals. , 1973 .

[36]  A. Baddeley.  The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[37]  P. Lachenbruch.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.) , 1989 .

[38]  Keiichi Kobayashi,et al.  What limits the encoding effect of note-taking? A meta-analytic examination , 2005 .

[39]  K. A. Ericsson,et al.  Long-term working memory. , 1995, Psychological review.

[40]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Comprehension: A Paradigm for Cognition , 1998 .

[41]  Alan D Baddeley,et al.  The complexities of complex span: explaining individual differences in working memory in children and adults. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[42]  Patricia Dunkel,et al.  The heuristic of lecture notetaking: Perceptions of American & international students regarding the value & practice of notetaking , 1989 .

[43]  R. T. Kellogg,et al.  Cognitive effort during note taking , 2005 .

[44]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Individual Differences in Integrating Information between and within Sentences. , 1983 .

[45]  Kenneth A. Kiewra,et al.  Spoken organizational lecture cues and student notetaking as facilitators of student learning , 2004 .

[46]  R. T. Kellogg,et al.  Competition for working memory among writing processes. , 2001, The American journal of psychology.

[47]  R. Abbott,et al.  Role of mechanics in composing of elementary school students: A new methodological approach. , 1997 .

[48]  Suzanne E. Wade,et al.  Effect of Self-Selected Study Methods on Learning. , 1989 .

[49]  R. Abbott,et al.  Structural equation modeling of relationships among developmental skills and writing skills in primary- and intermediate-grade writers. , 1993 .

[50]  Walter Schneider,et al.  Controlled and Automatic Human Information Processing: 1. Detection, Search, and Attention. , 1977 .

[51]  Mark S. Seidenberg,et al.  PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST HOW PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE INFORMS THE TEACHING OF READING , 2022 .

[52]  Virginia W. Berninger,et al.  Brain literacy for educators and psychologists , 2002 .

[53]  M. Chi,et al.  The Nature of Expertise , 1988 .

[54]  John R. Anderson.  Acquisition of cognitive skill. , 1982 .

[55]  R. Abbott,et al.  Treatment of Handwriting Problems in Beginning Writers: Transfer from Handwriting to Composition. , 1997 .

[56]  John R. Anderson.  The Adaptive Character of Thought , 1990 .

[57]  Brenda Hannon,et al.  Using working memory theory to investigate the construct validity of multiple-choice reading comprehension tests such as the SAT. , 2001, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[58]  Ann L. Brown,et al.  Macrorules for summarizing texts: the development of expertise , 1983 .

[59]  E. Cohn,et al.  Notetaking, Working Memory, and Learning in Principles of Economics , 1995 .

[60]  T. Carr,et al.  Adapting to processing demands in discourse production: The case of handwriting. , 1988 .

[61]  Donald L. Peters,et al.  Effects of note taking and rate of presentation on short-term objective test performance. , 1972 .

[62]  A. Miyake,et al.  Models of Working Memory , 1997 .

[63]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Individual differences in working memory and reading , 1980 .

[64]  M. Jackson,et al.  The science of writing , 2008 .

[65]  Deborah McCutchen,et al.  Individual Differences in Writing: Implications of Translating Fluency. , 1994 .

[66]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[67]  J. S. Nairne,et al.  The nature of remembering : essays in honor of Robert G. Crowder , 2001 .

[68]  R. W. Kulhavy,et al.  Note-Taking and Passage Style. , 1981 .

[69]  Virginia W. Berninger,et al.  Theory-Based Diagnosis and Remediation of Writing Disabilities. , 1991 .

[70]  The relationship between levels of note-taking and achievement. , 1984 .

[71]  M. Graham,et al.  College adults are not good at self-regulation: A study on the relationship of self-regulation, note taking, and test taking , 2003 .

[72]  Sung-Il Kim,et al.  A more equitable account of the note-taking functions in learning from lecture and from text , 1989 .

[73]  Kenneth A. Kiewra.  Investigating Notetaking and Review: A Depth of Processing Alternative , 1985 .

[74]  Carol A. Christensen,et al.  Relationship between automaticity in handwriting and students' ability to generate written text , 1999 .

[75]  K. Brobst,et al.  The process of integrating information from two sources, lecture and text. , 1996 .

[76]  A. Baddeley.  Human Memory: Theory and Practice, Revised Edition , 1990 .

[77]  Rex B. Kline,et al.  Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling , 1998 .

[78]  J. Sattler.  Assessment of Children: Cognitive Applications , 2001 .

[79]  John P. Rickards,et al.  The encoding versus the external storage hypothesis in note taking , 1978 .

[80]  S. Graham,et al.  Is handwriting causally related to learning to write? Treatment of handwriting problems in beginning writers , 2000 .