Sketchbook/notebook notes on a book by Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg

Writing notes longhand helps people better understand and retain information! I’ve been doing this for many years for this reason. It’s slow but efficient, plus (I hope) it minimizes the decline of my handwriting.

“When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated,” said Stanislas Dehaene, a psychologist at the Collège de France in Paris. “There is a core recognition of the gesture in the written word, a sort of recognition by mental simulation in your brain.

“And it seems that this circuit is contributing in unique ways we didn’t realize,” he continued. “Learning is made easier.”

—Maria Konnikova, “What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades,” NY Times, June 2, 2014

Typing doesn’t have the same effects, while cursive and printing might have different implications. Artists and performers interested in embodied cognition take note.