The power of writing hands : logical memory performance after handwriting and typing tasks with Wechsler Memory Scale revised edition

Information and communications technologies have generated a multilevel metamorphose not only of the educational field, but also of the usage of hands. The shift from handwriting to typing is bringing about a change in the ways people learn to recognize and recollect letters and words, read and write. This study investigates how different writing methods affect memory retrieval. The aim is to understand how the memory performances compare after handwriting and typing tasks, and how the factor of time or age affects recollection. The Wechsler Memory Scale Revised Edition (WMS-R) was used with experimental within-subjects research design to measure memory functions of 31 University of Lapland students in 2016. Participants wrote down a dictated story with a pencil, computer keyboard, and a touch screen keyboard. Consequently, the degree of recollection of each writing task was measured and analysed with repeated measures analysis of variance. Additionally, this thesis deliberates the embodied cognition theory, as learning and memorizing are not simply information processing in nothingness. Experiences, actions and senses all play part in learning, as well as in writing process with the harmonious co-operation of brain, mind and body. The results of this study indicate that writing modalities have statistically significant effect on recollection, handwriting receiving the highest scores. These results are of interest due to the constant increase of digitalization of learning environments. Moreover, these results can be reflected upon when evaluating the impending changes in the Finnish curriculum, from which cursive handwriting is removed in autumn 2016