Maria Konnikova, writing for the New York Times:
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.
I had a professor in college who was big into taking notes freehand because it improved recall. It takes more work to write freehand and thus I had to think about what I was writing a little bit harder — I couldn’t capture it all, so I summarized. At the time I guessed that process is what makes the difference.
But maybe there’s something deeper at play?