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Professor Oppenheimer holds joint positions in marketing and psychology at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Previously he was a Professor at Princeton University for 8 years, where he held a joint appointment in psychology and public affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He joined the faculty of Princeton after receiving his PhD from Stanford.
Professor Oppenheimer has received several prestigious awards for his research, which focuses on human decision making. His work has also been featured in top-tier media.
He’s the co-author of the book, Democracy Despite Itself: Why a System That Shouldn’t Work at All Works So Well. And recently, he was named as one of the Best 40 Professors under 40 by Poets and Quants, a widely read blog about MBA programs.
In this episode, Professor Oppenheimer talks about research he conducted with his graduate assistant Pam Mueller when he was at Princeton.
They studied the impact of taking notes by hand versus laptop on the retention and understanding of information by students.
Their study, “The Pen Is Mightier Than The Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking”, generated a tremendous amount of buzz in top tier media like the Wall Street Journal, which is where I first spotted it.
Professor Oppenheimer explains why they decided to undertake this research, the methodology they used, and their surprising findings.
We also talk about how his research is of relevance to writers like you and me. And he shares some of the techniques he uses to break through writer’s block and achieve flow.
Links
Download an abstract of his research here
Want to remember something? Take notes by hand