The Learning Brain 2021 Review

Learning has shifted during the pandemic, but the research continues to grow and there have been some interesting papers published in 2021

Obvious changes in learning environments of schools have spurred a mass of studies into virtual learning over the last two years – to be expected. But other studies have also been fascinating, showing how non-virtual learning is also very important.

One of these to come out in 2021 showed stronger brain activity after writing on paper than on tablet or smartphone. This was one from a number of studies by Professor Kuniyoshi Sakai in Japan. And this is particularly interesting because it was combined with brain scanning – what did he find? He found that writing on paper leads to more brain activity when recalling the information compared to when writing on a tablet. This is interesting because it is presumably linked to the increased activation when writing though more tactile information. Even through writing on a tablet is similar it is obviously not the same according to the brain scans.

"Actually, paper is more advanced and useful compared to electronic documents because paper contains more one-of-a-kind information for stronger memory recall,"