Journaling #7: Pick Up a Pen

It turns out that writing on paper with a pencil or pen is better than using a smartphone or stylus and tablet if you need to learn or memorize information. That seems somewhat intuitive, in that writing and rewriting study notes by hand is a successful study technique used by many students.

A recent study indicated that individuals who used pen and paper had better recall and showed more brain activity in a functional MRI than the participants who used digital methods to record information. The researchers felt that these significant differences were due to the unique, complex, spatial and tactile information associated with writing by hand on physical paper.

Using pen and paper for journal writing is a tactile experience that can be motivating, inspiring and cathartic. Writing with a good pen in a nice journal can be very satisfying, but writing with a pencil on a notepad will still get those brain cells firing. So, pick up that pen and give your brain a boost.

• Cupola Corner sells a curated selection of handmade and handbound journals that would be perfect for writing and brain boosting. 

🔍To return to the main page, please click on the banner at the top of this page or click on this link: Cupola Corner Blog 

Reference: Keita Umejima, Takuya Ibaraki, Takahiro Yamazaki, Kuniyoshi L. Sakai. Paper Notebooks vs. Mobile Devices: Brain Activation Differences During Memory Retrieval. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 2021; 15 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.634158