Lecture modality (written, audio, video, live) shows no consistent effect on memory for lecture content or on the note-taking effect¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across reviewed experiments, no main effect of lecture modality on memory for lecture content was observed, and modality did not interact with note-taking. → Jansen 2017

Evidence¶

Jansen 2017¶

Jansen, R. S., Lakens, D., & IJsselsteijn, W. (2017). An integrative review of the cognitive costs and benefits of note-taking. Educational Research Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.10.001

q2 · i? · review · r2

Narrative review synthesis of experiments by Peters (1972), Peper and Mayer (1978, study 2), and Schoen (2012), which manipulated written versus spoken/video lecture modality with and without note-taking. The review reports "no indication that lecture modality influences" memory, while cautioning that low statistical power warrants larger samples.

"Overall, based on the available research, there is no indication that lecture modality influences the amount of lecture material students remember, nor is there any indication modality effects depend on whether students take notes or not."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Better note quality and quantity relate to better memory, verbatim overlap relates negatively, and noted propositions are far more likely to be recalled — related
• Transcribed versus organised note-taking effects depend on lecture format: transcription won with audio lectures, summarising won with text — related
• Laptop note-takers transcribed more verbatim and did worse on conceptual questions than longhand note-takers in one set of experiments, but a direct replication found no consistent difference in test performance — related
• Presenting words as spoken narration rather than on-screen text alongside graphics improves learning — related
• Test format and timing moderate note-taking effects: congruent note-taking and testing modalities improved performance, and transcribed notes won only at immediate test — related
• In immediate recall by school pupils, objects shown are remembered better than written words, and written words better than spoken words — related