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Taking Notes in Psych

Study: Which system or strategy for taking notes results in the best performance on tests? researcher divided college students into three different groups. Each group was given a different method or strategy to take notes. After practicing one strategy, students watched a videotaped lecture and used their notes.

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168 views

Taking Notes in Psych

Study: Which system or strategy for taking notes results in the best performance on tests? researcher divided college students into three different groups. Each group was given a different method or strategy to take notes. After practicing one strategy, students watched a videotaped lecture and used their notes.

Uploaded by

api-31355470
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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E.

Research Focus: Taking Class Notes


Best Strategy for Taking Class Notes?
As you listen to lectures in class, youll probably be taking notes. But how do you know if youre using the best system or strategy? To research some particular behavior, such as note-taking, psychologists first ask a very specific research question: Which system or strategy for taking notes results in the best performance on tests? One researcher answered this question by using a combination of behavioral and cognitive approaches (A. King, 1992). As we describe this interesting study, notice how it involves the four goals of psychology, beginning with the first goal, describing behavior. How good are your class notes?

1st Goal: Describe Behavior


The researcher divided college students into three different groups. Each group was given a different method or strategy for taking notes. As described below, students practiced three different strategies for taking notes: review notes, summarize notes, and answer questions about notes. A. Review Notes The strategy that most students use is to try to write down as much as possible of what the professor says. Then, before exams, students review their notes, hoping they took good class notes. B. Summarize Notes Students took notes as usual but, after the lecture, used their notes to write a summary of the lecture in their own words. Students were shown how to identify a main topic and, in their own words, write a sentence about it. Then they identified a subtopic and wrote a sentence that related it to the main topic. When linked together, these sentences created a summary of the lecture, written in the students own words. C. Answer Questions about Notes Students took notes as usual but, after the lecture, used their notes to ask and answer questions about the lecture material. Students were given a set of 13 general questions, such as: What is the main idea of . . . ? How would you use . . . to . . . ? What is a new example of . . . ? What is the difference between . . . and . . . ? Students answered each of these questions using their class notes. After practicing one of these three note-taking strategies, students watched a videotaped lecture and used their particular strategy for taking notes.

2nd Goal: explain Behavior


A week after each group had watched a videotaped lecture, they were given an exam. The graph on the right shows that the group who used the strategy of taking notes plus answering questions scored significantly higher than the other two groups. The researcher explained that students who took notes and then answered questions about their notes retained more information than students who employed the other two strategies (A. King, 1992).

Note-Taking Strategy & Average Exam Score Review notes Summarize notes Answer questions 34 45 51

3rd Goal: Predict Behavior


On the basis of these results, the researcher predicts that students who use the strategy that combines note-taking with answering questions are likely to retain more information and perform better on exams than students who use traditional note-taking methods, such as writing as much as they can and then reviewing their notes before exams.

4th Goal: Control Behavior


Students can increase their chances of getting better grades by taking the time to learn a better note-taking strategy. This new strategy involves taking notes and then answering, in their own words, a series of general questions about the lecture material. Although this new note-taking strategy takes a little time to learn, the payoff will be better performance on exams. This and other research show the connection between good note-taking skills and higher test performance (Peverly et al., 2003).

Purpose of the Research Focus


This study shows how psychologists answered a very practical and important question about how best to take lecture notes. Well use the Research Focus to show how psychologists use different approaches and research techniques to answer a variety of interesting questions about human behavior. Each time you see this symbol, it will indicate a Research Focus, which occurs in each module. Although a large percentage of psychologists engage in research, youll see next how many others work in a variety of career settings that may or may not involve research.

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MoDule 1 discovering Psychology

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