Doodling Helps You Pay Attention

[Refugee 7]

A lot of people hate doodlers, those who idly scribble during meetings (or classes, or trials or whatever). Most people also hate that other closely related species: the fidgeter, who spins pens or re-orders papers or plays with his phone during meetings. (I stand guilty as charged. On occasion, I have also been known to whisper.) We doodlers, fidgeters and whisperers always get the same jokey, passive-aggressive line from the authority figure at the front of the room: "I'm sorry, are we bothering you?" How droll. But the underlying message is clear: pay attention.

But I've never stopped fidgeting, and I've always thought I walked out of meetings remembering all the relevant parts. Now I have proof. 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 non-doodlers 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 another five minutes helping with research. The participants were led into a quiet room and then asked to listen to a two-and-a-half-minute tape that they were told would be "rather dull."

That's a shocking bit of understatement. The tape — which Guantanamo officials should consider as a method of non-lethal torture — was a rambling (and fake) voice-mail message that purports to invite the listener to a 21st-birthday party. The party's host talks about someone's sick cat; she mentions her redecorated kitchen, the weather, someone's new house in Colchester, and a vacation in Edinburgh that involved museums and rain. In all, she mentions eight place names and eight people who are definitely coming to the party.

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 constitutes an official doodle.) The other 20 didn't doodle. All the participants were asked to write down 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, verbally, the place names and the names of the people coming to the party. The doodlers creamed the non-doodlers: those who doodled during the tape recalled 7.5 pieces of information (out of the 16 total) on average, 29% more than the average of 5.8 recalled by the control group.

Why does doodling aid memory? Andrade offers several theories, but the most persuasive is that when you doodle, you don't daydream.

Daydreaming may seem absentminded and pointless, but it actually demands a lot of the brain's processing power. You start daydreaming about a vacation, which leads you to think about potential destinations, how you would pay for the trip, whether you could get the flight upgraded, how you might score a bigger hotel room. These cognitions require what psychologists call "executive functioning" — for example, planning for the future and comparing costs and benefits.

Doodling, by contrast, requires very few executive resources, but just enough cognitive effort to keep you from daydreaming, which — if unchecked — will jumpstart activity in cortical networks that will keep you from remembering what's going on. Doodling forces your brain to spend just enough energy to stop it from daydreaming but not so much that you don't pay attention.

So the next time you're doodling during a meeting — or twirling a pencil or checking the underside of the table for gum — and you hear that familiar admonition ("Are we bothering you?"), you can tell the boss with confidence that you've been paying attention to every word.

[weird monkey 0]

I'm a compulsive doodler, fidgeter, and wool gatherer.

I've noticed that when I'm supposed to be paying attention, I am also either doodling (if I have a pen and any kind of paper handy, even the bottom of my shoe if I don't watch it) or fidgeting when on the phone or in a meeting. I'm very self conscious about the fidgeting, but I have noticed that if I stop, my mind indeed wanders. I no longer feel quite so weird as I did before now.

[LizzieB 0]

Oh my gosh, I think this is going to help me. I'm so bad about drifting off into other thoughts when people are talking. I have so many conference calls every week it's not even funny, and I constantly get distracted by something other than the speaker!

So, thanks!

[Mudcrutch 285]

lets say I am doodling while on the phone. I can later look at the doodle and remember the conversation very clearly. Very odd.

[Echosoftom 3]

I'm a compulsive doodler, fidgeter, and wool gatherer.

HAHAHAHAHA! That's me too, Marcia. The only difference is the wool thing but over the years I've mastered bending paper clips into all sorts of interesting little objects. I've never been able to just sit and pay attention in school as a kid or in meetings as an adult.

So now this study says it's a good thing, lol.

[agirl 0]

I too am a doodler. Always have been. Happy to hear it's a good thing.

[MaryJane 0]

Haha, this made me feel a lot better. :-P

[Pettyjunkie 0]

This is very comforting. I have to be doing something with my hands at all times, especially when I'm listening to someone. Whenever there is an assembly of a sort at school, I'll always take a pen or something to fidget with.

[asakitten 13]

I'm a doodler. When people try to talk to me while I'm charting I have to close the chart so I don't doodle in them.

[brandonwood20 0]

I love drawing and doodling! But my teacher doesn't go slow enough for me to have time. I can barely keep up as it is...

[Beamish 0]

It's always worked for me, and we let our clients squeeze sensory toys during class for this very reason.

[weird monkey 0]

Ooooh, sensory toys?

[Wingspan91089 0]

I'm always drawing during lectures, but unfortunately for me I get so adsorbed in what I'm drawing that I don't remember anything that was said. lol

Guess there's an exception to everything.

[TheWildOne 1]

I draw, doodle, and take notes during meetings. When I am studying printed material, I find that if I underline or highlite, or jot notes, it helps me remember the material, regardless of whether I refer back to those notes or not.

Sharon, I am also a compulsive paperclip shaper-bender!

[PumpkinBumpkin 1]

I am also a doodler. My teachers always know its my paper,lol.

[Beamish 0]

Ooooh, sensory toys?

Bwahaha ! I knew someone was going to say something like that !

[weird monkey 0]

Tee Hee! :003: Doodling!