To DHS Director of Studies:

It may look like I'm not paying attention when I'm doodling, but science says otherwise.

"Researchers in the United Kingdom found that test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message's details than those who didn't doodle. The findings were published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream," study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, said in a news release issued by the journal's publisher. "Daydreaming distracts them from the task, resulting in poorer performance. A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task.

For the experiment, a two-and-a-half minute listing of several people's names and places was played for test subjects, who were charged with writing down only the names of the people said to be attending a party. During the recording, half the participants were asked to simultaneously shade in shapes on a piece of paper without attention to neatness. Participants were not told they were taking part in a memory test.

When the recording ended, all were asked for the eight names of those attending the party as well as eight place names mentioned in the audio. Those asked to doodle wrote down, on average, 7.5 names and places, while those who didn't doodle listed only 5.8.

In psychology, tests of memory or attention will often use a second task to selectively block a particular mental process," Andrade said. "If that process is important for the main cognitive task, then performance will be impaired. My research shows that beneficial effects of secondary tasks, such as doodling, on concentration may offset the effects of selective blockade.

In everyday life, Andrade said, doodling may be something we do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task, rather than being an unnecessary distraction that we should try to resist doing."

LINKS:

• National Doodle Day | Epilepsy Action | Neurofibromatosis Association

• Presidential Doodles: All Things Considered, 09-21-2006
   
        President Obama's doodle, sketched as part
        of a "National Doodle Day" charity benefit...

• Obama Sketch Going to Charity, Redux

• Bored? Try Doodling to Keep The Brain On Task - Morning Edition, March 12, 2009

• NPR's Nell GreenfieldMesmorizing Doodles

• Google search: "doodling" concentration

. . . The function of doodling, according to (Jackie) Andrade (professor of psychology at the University of Plymouth), who recently published a study on doodling in Applied Cognitive Psychology, is to provide just enough cognitive stimulation during an otherwise boring task to prevent the mind from taking the more radical step of totally opting out of the situation and running off into a fantasy world.

Andrade tested her theory by playing a lengthy and boring tape of a telephone message to a collection of people, only half of whom had been given a doodling task. After the tape ended she quizzed them on what they had retained and found that the doodlers remembered much more than the nondoodlers. "They remembered about 29 percent more information from the tape than the people who were just listening to the tape," Andrade says. In other words, doodling doesn't detract from concentration; it can help by diminishing the need to resort to daydream.

Morning Edition, 02-12-2009

• Re: doodling in meetings:

I've always rated doodles as a method to capture or generate solutions to a creative problem. I also doodle in meetings and although refused to be intimidated into giving up, I always felt very slightly guilty. No one ever asked me to actually stop. I suspect they were caught between the belief that I wasn't paying attention and the desire to enjoy the final results. Anyway its good that some scientist thinks it helps retain information.

Why do scientists tot up the numbers and announce the result like they've discovered something new? . . . Most creatives I know are aware of the value of doodling and many have given thought to the mechanics and psychology behind it. None, that I know anyway, felt the need to publish an academic paper though.

I've also added national doodle day to my blinklist pages.

Need Inspritation?   Artists' Sketchbooks Online

Nina J., a member of the Everyday Matters (EDM) Yahoo on-line art group, posted a message about this website in November 2007 - and I looked at it and bookmarked it for future reference.

https://www.gis.net/~scatt/sketchbook/links.html

It is an index with links for sketchbooks that are on-line - many from Master Artists and many from contemporary artists. Scattergood-Moore, the artist that maintains this website, has done a wonderful service for all of us who love to learn from the Masters and be inspired by some of our contemporaries. Bookmark it on your blog and spread the word about this excellent resource.

I've been drawing/painting daily since January 2006 and now have 23 completed sketchbooks. I love books and rarely draw or paint anything that is not on a watercolor journal page. Sometimes my daily page is more like a visual journal or travel sketchbook, but most often I'm working on specific skills that I want to develop, practice, and remember. I sketch from drawings of the Masters, trying to copy their lines so I will learn from them, and rarely attend an art exhibit without sketching at least one piece that is in the exhibit. But I also draw and paint my grandchildren's toys to connect with them on a different level.

I'm not sure how often I looked at the sketchbooks that are linked on this website over the last year, but recently I noticed links to blogs of many EDM members in the Index and an invitation to submit your sketchbook URL for consideration to be listed.

Posted by Shirley on October 28, 2008   -   Paper and Threads

• Thanks for the timely reminder, Shirley, that site IS a treasure!   -   Kate, 10-29-2008

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