Doodlers Rejoice! Doodling is Actually Good For You!

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on March 4, 2009 at 3:42 am


Do you doodle when you’re bored? Turns out, those idle scribbles actually serve a beneficial purpose: doodling help you retain information in the event of boredom!

In a delightful new study, which will be published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, psychologist Jackie Andrade of the University of Plymouth in southern England showed that doodlers actually remember more than nondoodlers when asked to retain tediously delivered information, like, say, during a boring meeting or a lecture.

In her small but rigorous study, Andrade separated 40 participants into two groups of 20. All 40 had just finished an unrelated psychological experiment, and many were thinking of going home (or to the pub). They were asked, instead, whether they wouldn’t mind spending an additional five minutes helping with research. The participants were led into a quiet room and asked to listen to a 2½-min. tape that they were told would be "rather dull." [...]

Before the tape began, half the study participants were asked to shade in some little squares and circles on a piece of paper while they listened. They were told not to worry about being neat or quick about it. (Andrade did not instruct people explicitly to "doodle," which might have prompted self-consciousness about what constituted an official doodle.) The other 20 didn’t doodle. All the participants were asked to write the names of those coming to the party while the tape played, which meant the doodlers switched between their doodles and their lists.

Afterward, the papers were removed and the 40 volunteers were asked to recall, orally, the place names and the names of the people coming to the party. The doodlers creamed the nondoodlers: those who doodled during the tape recalled 7.5 pieces of information (out of 16 total) on average, 29% more than the average of 5.8 recalled by the control group.

John Cloud of TIME Magazine has more: Link


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11 comments to "Doodlers Rejoice! Doodling is Actually Good For You!"

  1. Camilla
    March 4th, 2009 at 6:33 am

    When I was a student, I always spent my classes drawing. Some people were surprised that my test scores were high, but it was just the way I concentrated. If I was blankly staring at the teacher, my mind would wander and I would become distracted.

  2. Polx
    March 4th, 2009 at 8:29 am

    @ Camilla

    I do exactly the same thing.

    In meetings I have had people ask to see my notes only to be confounded by the sheets of doodling.

    I remember what I need but doodling helps me do so.

    I'm a games artist so it's me job too.

  3. sicilyme
    March 4th, 2009 at 9:23 am

    This is nothing new. I can recall a similar study put out nearly fifteen years ago, and in turn I'm sure there were some even before that. : )

  4. James Kurtz III
    March 4th, 2009 at 11:54 am

    Wow! I wish I had this evidence when I was in high school. Could have saved me a couple detentions.

  5. Zach
    March 4th, 2009 at 12:28 pm

    Thank god... I guess I didn't completely waste my time drawing a thousand things on Scribbls then.

  6. Ali S.
    March 4th, 2009 at 3:50 pm

    My dad has a weird doodling habit when he is busy crunching numbers or on the phone with someone. He always seem to enjoy making elaborate box art on the paper around words.

  7. Scooter
    March 4th, 2009 at 4:03 pm

    I've doodled for my whole life. Art student and now i work in an art related job. had a consistant 3.5 grade point average. I had a teacher actually give me extra points for a doodle on a work sheet in Elementary school.

  8. edc
    March 4th, 2009 at 8:37 pm

    I find that surfing the internet uses up my doodling time...
    incidentally I'd very much like to use my doodle on the girl in the photo.

  9. Camilla
    March 5th, 2009 at 2:21 am

    @Polx

    haha I'm a game designer. XD I doodle in meetings too. At least my bosses and colleagues don't seem to mind :D

  10. Polx
    March 5th, 2009 at 5:31 am

    @Camilla

    Yay for us and our retarded professions.

    NO ...really.

  11. Tempscire
    March 5th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    The doodlers creamed the nondoodlers

    I hope I'm not the only one who snickered because that sentence sounded vaguely dirty. ;)


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