Study finds doodling aids in concentration

Graphic by Kamren Thompson. Source: Handwriting Analysis: Putting it to Work for You

Doodling is more than just a classroom distraction.

The little boxes and squiggles students doodle while listening to a lecturing professor can actually improve memorization, according to a 2009 study.

However, professors reported a recent decrease in doodling and an increase in real distractions like daydreaming and technology.

A 2009 study conducted by Dr. Jackie Andrade, postgraduate research coordinator for the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, found that doodling could be the most beneficial way to fight boredom.

"Doodling helps to stop daydreaming by giving your brain more information to process without interfering with the main task you are doing, which is listening to the phone message or lecture," Andrade said in an e-mail interview.

She said once a daydream starts, it takes mental resources away from the task.

"In particular, it uses high-level or executive resources that are important for mental control and concentration," Andrade said. "Doodling also takes some mental effort, of course, but it needs mainly visual and spatial processes and few executive resources."

In other words, doodling requires cognitive effort, but not so much that it causes a complete distraction as daydreaming often does.

"Daydreams also tend to be about things that are important to us, ‘Where shall I go tonight? What shall I eat for lunch? Should I smoke another cigarette? Will my friends think I'm stupid?''' Andrade said. "So it can be hard to break out of a daydream and get back to concentrating on the task in hand."

Teaching assistant Brandon Nepote has a sketchbook with him every day of his life and has for the past nine years.

"I can't say I did it in high school, but in college I doodled every day, every class period, every lecture," Nepote said. "Now I'm about to receive my M.F.A. So, obviously I think it works."

Brian Simpson, sophomore speech communication major, said he also doodles every day.

"If I doodle, I still pay attention," Simpson said. "The doodling helps me from staring out the window and stuff. I will write down notes and just draw off the notes little stick figures and stuff, short and random."

In Andrade's study, 40 participants listened to a two-and-a-half-minute mock phone message and recalled information. The participants also shaded in 10 shapes, aligned in alternating rows of circles and squares.

Andrade did not allow participants to doodle naturally to prevent inaccurate results due to self-consciousness.

"People will tune their doodling according to the demands of the other task they are doing, but it is hard to test naturalistic doodling in the laboratory," Andrade said. "If I ask you to doodle during an experiment, you might feel quite self-conscious about what a psychologist will think of your doodles. Naturalistic doodling isn't self-conscious like that, and I hoped the shape-shading task would capture the more spontaneous, absent-minded feel of naturalistic doodling."

Juan Salinas, psychology lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin, said students usually doodle because they are not engaged enough. He said an "upside-down U" response to being excited or interested is common.

"If your emotional state of activity when you're learning is too low, learning won't be enhanced, like you're bored," Salinas said in a phone interview. "And then being too excited or agitated also impairs it. There's a middle ground when you're emotionally engaged when memory is facilitated."

Salinas said doodling can make things just exciting or interesting enough to facilitate absorption of information.

"We are visual creatures," he said. "Visual stimulation may play a bigger role for a lot of people."

He also said students pay attention and focus based on how they like to learn.

"No matter how well you write the textbook, some will need pictures," Salinas said. "People may need a little verbal tune or songs to help them remember something. If doodling is what it takes, well, then doodling is what it takes."

Salinas said relating the material to the students' lives also helps.

"You think of the imagery from your own personal experience," he said. "They start to organize the new information on the basis of something they know already. Sometimes that prior experience and seeing the connection, while it may be indirect, can help."

Victor Scherb, University English professor, said he notices doodling occasionally.

"I can't say I've particularly noticed any recently," Scherb said. "I only notice it about once a term. That doesn't mean they haven't done it. It just means I don't notice."

Dr. David Beams, University electrical engineering associate professor, said he has not noticed doodling recently either, but it is not always easy to spot.
"If someone is drawing meaningless pictures on his or her notes, it's difficult to tell that from if they are actually taking notes," Beams said.

Another explanation for the lack of doodling is technology. Beams said usually students are distracted by their laptops.

"The ones that are blatant are when someone whips open a laptop and starts in on it when there's really no purpose or reason for them to have a laptop open," he said. "If someone is playing with his or her laptop, I have to wonder if they are really paying attention or not."

Beams also said he can tell if students are daydreaming by their body language.

"They don't seem, by their body language or their eyes, to be paying attention," he said. "Their eyes aren't following you or their body language is detached. They slouch."

Beams said he notices a distracted student just about every day.

"I daydream everyday," sophomore Daniel Pineda said. "There are just so many other things going on besides class in my life."

While doodling could be a preventative measure for daydreaming and the distraction of technology, it also can reveal subconscious thoughts.

Although primarily known for analyze handwriting, some graphologists also interpret doodles.

Some doodles are more common than others. People doodle boxes more than any other doodle, according to "Handwriting Analysis: Putting it to Work For You" by Andrea McNichol and Jeffrey Nelson.

While all boxes indicate a desire to be constructive, three-dimensional ones strongly imply the ability to see all sides of an issue, McNichol and Nelson said.