🌱 misapplied tools might trick people into thinking they understand material better than they do. It leads to busy-work. The look of understanding

learning engagement → underlining

Underlining, or highlighting (on a kindle, the modern variant), looks like a good way to study material. Unfortunately it is not as useful as what many people seem to think. Underlining is only useful if it is just the first step in studying a subject. For real understanding the material needs to be processed, preferably rewritten in our own words Copying is bad, translating is better.

A serious downside of underlining is that often it is just something to do, there is no system or reason to it. This effectively turns it into busy work. Because of the Dunning-Kruger effect people might think they are doing well, the text now looks nice (colorful), and because they don’t really understand what they read they have no idea what they underlined makes no sense.

Q: How can highlighting be unproductive? DOWN A: If the wrong items, or too much, is highlighted, it is no longer useful for improving understanding and/or remembering. It turns into busy-work. Highlighting must be the first step in studying a subject.

Also see

bad systems induce bad working habits A fitting work environment will enhance productivity

Literature notes

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Underlining might works for better students - 50% for the underlined passages - works for better students - many different reasons to underline passages - might even be just something to do

Fleeting notes

People have very different reasons to underline. If good then it helps, if not, it distarcts

• For better students it improves test results, but for less able readers it just feels good.
  • It gives the feeling or impression of hard work
• Overal result 50% chance to be correct if underlined
• Not always obvious why people underline
  • is it actually important
    • do they link it to previous knowledge?
  • is it just something to do
• Underlining = encoding and storage
  • to help comprehend and to remember
    • results show this works if it works, eg for better students
      • if so, then it is not the underlining itself that is key, that is only an instrument
    • if people don’t understand the text then underlining gives the false impression they do