https://city.udn.com/50132/5121611 

Learning In a Stroke Of a Pen
提筆寫字 增進學習能力
By Maria Konnikova

Does handwriting matter?
書寫重要嗎？

Many educators call for teaching legible writing, but only in kindergarten and first grade. After that, the emphasis quickly shifts to proficiency on the keyboard.
許多教育界人士主張教導孩子端正書寫，不過只限於幼稚園與小一。此後重點很快就轉移到熟練鍵盤打字去了。

But psychologists and neuroscientists say it is far too soon to declare handwriting a relic. New evidence suggests the links between handwriting and educational development run deep.
然而心理學家與神經科學家表示，宣告書寫已成歷史時候還沒到。新證據顯示書寫與教育發展關係極深。

Children not only learn to read more quickly when they first learn to write by hand, but they are better able to generate ideas and retain information.
孩子初學手寫時，不僅學會認字更快，也更能產生想法並保留訊息。

“When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated,” said Stanislas Dehaene, a psychologist at the Collège de France in Paris. “And it seems that this circuit is contributing in unique ways we didn’t realize.”
法蘭西公學院心理學家迪哈尼說：「書寫時一個獨特的神經回路會自動開啟。這回路似乎以我們未察覺的獨特方式幫助我們。」

A 2012 study led by Karin James, a psychologist at Indiana University, supports that view. Children who didn’t know how to read and write were presented with a letter or a shape on an index card and asked to reproduce it. The children were then placed in a brain scanner and shown the image again.
2012年由印第安納大學心理學家卡琳‧詹姆士領銜所做研究佐證這項見解。研究人員向不識字的孩子出示上有一個字母或形狀的索引卡片，要他們複製。接著，把這些孩子置於大腦掃描機下，再向他們出示同樣的圖像。

The researchers found the initial duplication process mattered a great deal. When children had drawn a letter freehand, they exhibited increased activity in areas of the brain that are activated in adults when they read and write.
研究人員發現，最初的複製過程非常重要。孩子們徒手畫出一個字母時，與成人書寫時啟動的相同大腦部位活動會明顯增加。

The activation was significantly weaker in children who typed or traced the letter.
如果孩子打字或摹寫，啟動程度弱得多。

Dr. James attributes the differences to the messiness inherent in free-form handwriting: We are likely to produce a result that is highly variable.
詹姆士認為，這些差異源於自由形式書寫原已具備的雜亂特性。我們可能產生極為多變的結果。

“When a kid produces a messy letter,” Dr. James said, “that might help him learn it.” Being able to decipher each messy letter may be more helpful than seeing the same result.
詹姆士說：「孩子寫出一個雜亂的字母，可能有助於他學習這個字母。」能夠解讀每一個雜亂的字母可能比只是看相同的結果更有幫助。

The effect goes 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 separate brain patterns – and each results in a distinct end product. When the children wrote by hand, they not only produced more words more quickly than they did on a keyboard, but expressed more ideas. The children with better handwriting exhibited greater neural activation in areas linked with working memory – and increased overall activation in the reading and writing networks.
效果不只限於辨認字母。華盛頓大學心理學家維吉妮亞‧柏寧格對二到五年級學童進行的研究顯示，印刷字體、草寫與在鍵盤上打字各與不同的大腦模式有關，也各有不同的終端產品。孩子以手書寫時，不但會比在鍵盤上更快速的產生更多字彙，還會表達更多想法。孩子書寫能力較強，與工作記憶有關的大腦部位神經啟動程度較強，閱讀與書寫網絡的整體啟動程度也會提高。

It now appears that there may even be a difference between printing and cursive writing. In dysgraphia, a condition where the ability to write is impaired, something unusual happens sometimes: cursive writing remains relatively unimpaired in some people, while in others, printing remains unimpaired.
最新研究顯示，甚至印刷字體與草體書寫之間可能也有差異。以書寫困難症而言，一些不尋常的現象有時候會出現：有些人草體書寫能力比較不受影響，有些人則是印刷體的書寫能力比較不受影響。

In alexia, or impaired reading ability, some individuals who are unable to process print can still read cursive, and vice versa – suggesting the two writing modes engage separate brain networks, and therefore more cognitive resources.
以閱讀障礙症來說，部分無法處理印刷字體的人仍然可以閱讀草寫體。反之亦然。這意味，這二種書寫形式牽涉不同的大腦網絡與更多的認知資源。

Dr. Berninger even suggests 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.
柏寧格甚至認為，草體書寫能夠以其他書寫形式做不到的方式訓練自我控制能力。有些研究人員則認為，它甚至可能是治療閱讀困難症的一種方法。

The benefits of writing by hand go beyond childhood. For adults, typing may be efficient, but it may diminish the ability to process new information.
手寫的好處會延續到成年。對成人而言，打字可能比較有效率，卻可能傷害處理新訊息的能力。

While not every expert is convinced the long-term benefits of handwriting are that significant, Paul Bloom, a Yale University psychologist, says the new research is thought-provoking.
並不是每位專家都認為手寫的好處有那麼大，不過耶魯大學心理學家布倫姆表示，這種新研究引人深思。

“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, he added “Maybe it helps you think better.”
他說：「書寫時，把字寫下來這個動作會迫使你把注意力集中在重點。」他又說，停下來思考之後，「或許能讓你思考得更周密」。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/science/whats-lost-as-handwriting-fades.html

2014-06-17聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 陳世欽譯 原文參見紐時週報十版左