[Edu-sig] Summarizing some threads (KIrby again)...

[Laura Creighton]

A problem arises when one has to learn new material.  For many of us,
actually writing the material down makes us retain it better.  And for
me, at any rate, writing it down in longhand works better for the
memorisation of facts than typing things in.

I wish I knews of studies of retention like that.  I'd really like to
know why it is that this is so, in order that we can make sure we do
not cheat our students of the tools they need to learn things.  It is
complicated by the fact that people differ in this matter, from the
people with eidic or near eidic memories, who don't understand why
people need tricks to learn how to memorise things, to people who can
remember things that they read easier than things that they wrote, to
people who can remember neither of those well, but do remember the
spoken voice well.  Why are we like this?  Has anybody figured this
out yet?

Laura