Abstract:

With technology infiltrating academic classrooms, traditional note-taking behaviours have been complemented and in cases substituted by more modernised, technologically advanced note-taking phenotypes. In-class note-taking behaviours exhibit a considerable variability with students engaging from longhand note-taking paradigms to taking pictures of slides and videotape whole lectures for subsequent reviewing. The mnemonic consequences of non-traditional note-taking behaviours like photographing and videotaping lecture content are severely under-explored. The aim of the present study was to explore the mnemonic effects of lecture-related photo-taking and videotaping behaviours as an alternative note-taking modality. We divided participants into three groups (observation group vs photo-taking group vs videotaping group) and exposed them to a lecture presentation. Subsequently, we gave participants a lecture-related memory test to examine their mnemonic ability. A subsequent review of the snapped material was not possible. Using a one-way between groups analysis of variance, we calculated the differences in memory performance between our three note-taking groups. A successive post-hoc analysis with Bonferroni correction was also conducted to explore multiple comparisons. Participants engaging in both photo-taking and videotaping note-taking phenotypes performed significantly worse in the subsequent memory task compared to the observation group. We found preliminary evidence in favor of a photo-taking impairment effect within the academic context. No differences were found between the two experimental groups in memory performance. Non-traditional note-taking behaviours like photographing and videotaping lecture content appear to exert a mnemonic disadvantage compared to a simple observation of the relevant material. Results were interpreted mainly through the lens of the attentional disengagement hypothesis. Alternative etiological explanations were also discussed. Our conclusions set the stage for new lines of note-taking research and provide a preliminary basis for the development of optimal and efficient in-class note-taking techniques.

Keywords:

Note-taking, photo-taking, videotaping, mnemonic effects, photo-taking impairment effect.