10 Optional IT setup
🏠 Self-study
10.1 Note-taking
Imagine you read a chapter in a textbook and finally understand something you never understood before. Will you remember your insight? You might think that of course you will. Well, unfortunately, you might not. Not only do we tend to forget things we learned, but we also tend to believe we won’t forget them (Koriat et al., 2004).
Therefore, we would recommend writing things down. This could be on paper or electronically. Electronic notes of course have the advantage that you can search them later. In addition, you can add tags to them, which also makes it easier to find relevant information later. I personally use Evernote, but there are a large number of similar tools available, some of them completely free. In fact, one of them comes with Microsoft 365: OneNote1. You could also just use Word. Or you have a look at this very detailed comparison of many different note-taking apps. The point is: It doesn’t matter so much which tool you use, as long as you use it!
For more ideas on how to become a sophisticated learner, we would highly recommend reading this article on learning effectively by Bjork et al.
10.2 From Windows to macOS
If you have recently switched from Windows to macOS, here are a couple of webpages to help you make the transition:
- Mac tips for Windows switchers from Apple.
- A Quick Guide to Using a Mac for Windows Users from MakeUseOf.
10.3 Syncing OneDrive and your computer
If you installed Microsoft 365 (see Chapter 9), you already have the desktop version of OneDrive. This gives you the option to sync files between the cloud and your computer. The advantage is that you can work offline and make changes in your local OneDrive folder; once you come online again, OneDrive uploads the most recent version of your files to the cloud.
There is one exception: When you start creating PsychoPy experiments in Lab 5, you should develop and run them in a folder that is not synced with OneDrive, and only copy them to OneDrive as a backup once you have finished (see Section 26.7).