What's Lost as Handwriting Fades
July 21, 2014
當我們不再用手書寫
教育2014年07月21日
Does handwriting matter?
手寫重要嗎？
Not very much, according to many educators. The Common Core standards, which have been adopted in most states, call for teaching legible writing, but only in kindergarten and first grade. After that, the emphasis quickly shifts to proficiency on the keyboard.
根據許多教育工作者的說法，它不太重要。大多數州已經採納的各州“共同核心”(Common Core)標準呼籲各州教育學生清晰地寫字，不過這一要求僅限於幼兒園和小學一年級。之後，教學重點就迅速轉到了對鍵盤的熟練運用上。
But psychologists and neuroscientists say it is far too soon to declare handwriting a relic of the past. New evidence suggests that the links between handwriting and broader educational development run deep.
然而，心理學家和神經科學家表示，此時就宣布手寫已經過時未免太早了。新證據表明，手寫和更廣泛的教育發展之間存在深深的聯繫。
Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they also remain better able to generate ideas and retain information. In other words, it's not just what we write that matters — but how.
兒童最初學習手寫時，手寫不僅能讓他們學會更快地閱讀，而且還能更有效地激發他們的創意，讓他們牢記信息。換言之，重要的不僅是我們寫了什麼——我們怎麼寫也一樣重要。
“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.
巴黎法蘭西公學院(Collège de France)心理學家斯坦尼斯拉斯·德阿納(Stanislas Dehaene)說，“我們寫字時，會自動激活一條獨一無二的神經迴路。它能對所寫文字的筆法做出核心識別，這是大腦裡進行的某種心理模擬識別。”
“And it seems that this circuit is contributing in unique ways we didn't realize,” he continued. “Learning is made easier.”
他接著說，“似乎這條迴路在以一種我們沒有意識到的方式發揮作用。學習變得更容易了。”
A 2012 study led by Karin James , a psychologist at Indiana University , lent support to that view. Children who had not yet learned to read and write were presented with a letter or a shape on an index card and asked to reproduce it in one of three ways: trace the image on a page with a dotted outline, draw it on a blank white sheet, or type it on a computer. They were then placed in a brain scanner and shown the image again.
由印第安納大學(Indiana University)心理學家卡琳·詹姆斯(Karin James)牽頭在2012年進行的一項研究，給這種觀點提供了支持。研究者向還沒有學過閱讀和書寫的孩子展示一張索引卡，上面是一個字母或一種圖形，然後讓孩子們以三種方式中的一種複制卡片上的內容，一種是沿著由虛線構成的輪廓描摹、一種是在白紙上把它畫出來，還有一種是在電腦上把它打出來。然後研究人員把孩子們安排在腦部掃描儀前，再次給他們顯示了同一幅圖像。
The researchers found that the initial duplication process mattered a great deal. When children had drawn a letter freehand, they exhibited increased activity in three areas of the brain that are activated in adults when they read and write: the left fusiform gyrus, the inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior parietal cortex.
研究人員發現，最初的複製過程極其重要。當孩子們徒手畫出一個字母后，其腦部有三個區域顯示出腦活動有所增強，這三個區域是成人閱讀和書寫時激活的大腦區域，它們是左梭狀腦回、額下回和後頂葉皮層。
By contrast, children who typed or traced the letter or shape showed no such effect. The activation was significantly weaker.
與此相反，打字的孩子，或者沿著字母或圖形邊緣描摹的孩子並沒有顯示出這種反應。他們這三個腦區的激活強度要弱得多。
Dr. James attributes the differences to the messiness inherent in free-form handwriting: Not only must we first plan and execute the action in a way that is not required when we have a traceable outline, but we are also likely to produce a result that is highly variable.
詹姆斯把這種區別歸因於自由書寫固有的雜亂性：我們不僅要先制定計劃、再落實行動，而且還有可能寫出高度多變的字體。有可供描摹的輪廓時，是不需要這種過程的。
That variability may itself be a learning tool. “When a kid produces a messy letter,” Dr. James said, “that might help him learn it.”
這種多變性本身就是一種學習的途徑。詹姆斯說，“孩子寫出凌亂的字母時，有可能會幫助他學習這個字母。”
兒童手寫的樣本。卡琳·詹姆斯發現，兒童用手寫出字母時，大腦中三個重要區域的活動出現增強，而描摹和打字時並不會出現這種現象。
Karin James
Our brain must understand that each possible iteration of, say, an “a” is the same, no matter how we see it written. Being able to decipher the messiness of each “a” may be more helpful in establishing that eventual representation than seeing the same result repeatedly.
我們的大腦必須要認出字母的各種不同寫法，比如說，不管我們看到的“a”是怎麼寫的，它都是同一個字母。能夠識別字母“a”的每一種凌亂寫法，或許比反复目睹同樣的書寫結果，更有助於建立這種最終的認識。
“This is one of the first demonstrations of the brain being changed because of that practice,” Dr. James said.
詹姆斯說，“這是能表明大腦因為此類練習而發生改變的最早的例證之一。”
In another study, Dr. James is comparing children who physically form letters with those who only watch others doing it. Her observations suggest that it is only the actual effort that engages the brain's motor pathways and delivers the learning benefits of handwriting.
在另一項研究中，詹姆斯把徒手寫字的兒童和那些只看別人寫字的兒童做了比較。她的觀察結果顯示，只有實際的書寫行為，才能引發腦部皮層發生迴路活動，產生書寫的學習效用。
The effect goes well beyond letter recognition. In a study that followed children in grades two through five, Virginia Berninger , a psychologist at the University of Washington, demonstrated that printing, cursive writing, and typing on a keyboard are all associated with distinct and separate brain patterns — and each results in a distinct end product. When the children composed text by hand, they not only consistently produced more words more quickly than they did on a keyboard, but expressed more ideas. And brain imaging in the oldest subjects suggested that the connection between writing and idea generation went even further. When these children were asked to come up with ideas for a composition, the ones with better handwriting exhibited greater neural activation in areas associated with working memory — and increased overall activation in the reading and writing networks.
手寫的影響遠遠超出了字母辨識。在一項研究中，華盛頓大學(University of Washington)心理學家弗吉尼婭·貝爾寧格(Virginia Berninger)對二年級到五年級的學生進行了跟踪研究。研究表明，手寫和鍵盤打字涉及完全不同且相互隔離的用腦模式——而且每種模式都會產生完全不同的最終效果。孩子們徒手書寫文字時，不僅會比用鍵盤打字更快的速度持續寫出更多的文字，而且還能表達出更多見解。年齡最大的實驗對象的大腦成像圖顯示，手寫和激發想法之間的關係甚至更為深遠。當研究人員要求這些兒童構思作文時，寫字更好的孩子的大腦中，與工作記憶相關的腦區顯示出了更強的神經活動——其閱讀和書寫區域的整體活動也有所增加。
It now appears that there may even be a difference between printing and cursive writing — a distinction of particular importance as the teaching of cursive disappears in curriculum after curriculum. In dysgraphia, a condition where the ability to write is impaired, sometimes after brain injury, the deficit can take on a curious form: In some people, cursive writing remains relatively unimpaired, while in others, printing does.
目前的研究顯示，就連用印刷體書寫和花體字書寫之間可能都存在差異——隨著花體字課程從一所接一所學校的課程中消失，這種差異顯得格外重要。書寫困難是一種書寫能力受損的病狀，腦部受損的人有時會產生這種狀況。在發生書寫困難症時，書寫能力缺失會以一種古怪的方式出現：一些人書寫花體字時受到的影響較少，而另一些人則是書寫印刷體時受到的影響較少。
印第安納大學心理學家卡琳·詹姆斯使用腦部掃描技術研究手寫對兒童大腦活動的影響。
AJ Mast for The New York Times
In alexia, or impaired reading ability, some individuals who are unable to process print can still read cursive, and vice versa — suggesting that the two writing modes activate separate brain networks and engage more cognitive resources than would be the case with a single approach.
患有失讀症，即閱讀能力受損時，一些無法理解印刷體的人，依然能夠閱讀手寫的花體字，相反的情況也存在。這一點表明，這兩種書寫模式激活了大腦中不同的網絡，其牽涉的認知資源要多於單一的書寫模式。
Dr. Berninger goes so far as to suggest that cursive writing may train self-control ability in a way that other modes of writing do not, and some researchers argue that it may even be a path to treating dyslexia. A 2012 review suggests that cursive may be particularly effective for individuals with developmental dysgraphia — motor-control difficulties in forming letters — and that it may aid in preventing the reversal and inversion of letters.
貝爾寧格博士在這一點上走得更遠，她甚至認為，花體字也許能以其他書寫模式所不能的方式，訓練人的自控能力。一些研究人員提出，花體字或許還是治療書寫困難的一種途徑。2012年的一次評估提出，花體字對於治療患有發 育性書寫困難的患者，可能格外有效——他們在書寫字母時，會遇到動作控制方面的困難——花體字也許有助於防止人們把字母寫倒或寫反。
Cursive or not, the benefits of writing by hand extend beyond childhood. For adults, typing may be a fast and efficient alternative to longhand, but that very efficiency may diminish our ability to process new information. Not only do we learn letters better when we commit them to memory through writing, memory and learning ability in general may benefit.
不管是花體字還是其他書寫模式，手寫的益處不僅惠及童年。對成人而言，打字也許是一種可以替代手寫的迅速而高效的方式，但這種效率可能會削弱我們處理新信息的能力。我們通過手寫來記憶文字時，不僅能更有效地學習字母，還能整體上讓我們的記憶和學習能力受益。
Michael Mabry
Two psychologists, Pam A. Mueller of Princeton and Daniel M. Oppenheimer of the University of California, Los Angeles, havereported that in both laboratory settings and real-world classrooms, students learn better when they take notes by hand than when they type on a keyboard. Contrary to earlier studies attributing the difference to the distracting effects of computers, the new research suggests that writing by hand allows the student to process a lecture's contents and reframe it — a process of reflection and manipulation that can lead to better understanding and memory encoding.
普林斯頓大學(Princeton)的心理學家帕姆·A·米勒(Pam A. Mueller)和加州大學洛杉磯分校(University of California, Los Angeles)的心理學家丹尼爾·M·奧本海默(Daniel M . Oppenheimer) 撰文稱，不管是在實驗室環境下，還是在真實的課堂上，通過手寫記筆記的學生，學習效果都要比用鍵盤打字的學生好。此前的研究把這種差異歸因於電腦會分散注意力，但新的研究提出，手寫能讓學生處理並重組授課內容——這種思索和控制能讓學生更好地理解講課內容，進行記憶編碼。
Not every expert is persuaded that the long-term benefits of handwriting are as significant as all that. Still, one such skeptic, the Yale psychologist Paul Bloom , says the new research is, at the very least, thought-provoking.
不是每位專家都滿心相信手寫的長期益處有如此重要。不過，懷疑者之一，耶魯大學(Yale)的心理學家保羅·布盧姆(Paul Bloom)說，不管怎麼說，這都是一項發人深省的研究。
“With handwriting, the very act of putting it down forces you to focus on what's important,” he said. He added, after pausing to consider, “Maybe it helps you think better.”
他說，“手寫時，寫字的行為會迫使你把注意力集中在要點上。”他停下來思考片刻後又說，“也許它能幫助你更好地思考。”
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