Researchers from the School of Psychology at England's University of Plymouth found that doodling as we listen may help remember important information we may otherwise unintentionally miss in a boring meeting.
So, next time when you are you're stuck on hold or zoning out during a dull meeting, you might want to reach for a pen and doodle and not just to kill your time. Doodling might help you remember snippets of key information that's mentioned during long conversations.
The researchers asked 40 adults who had just finished another psychology test to listen to a "rather dull" audio tape play for two and a half minutes and to write down the names of people who would definitely or probably be coming to a party. As they listened to the tape, half of the participants were encouraged to doodle on a piece of paper. They didn't have to draw freehand; instead, they were given a sheet of paper filled with outlines of squares and circles to shade in. For comparison, the other half of the group didn't doodle while listening to the tape.
One minute after the tape finished, participants took a pop quiz in which they had to recall the party-goers' names and places that were mentioned on the tape. They had not been told to listen for the places.
The doodlers recalled an average of "7.5 pieces of information (names and places), 29% more than the [average] of 5.8 recalled by the control group.
It is not exactly known how doodling helped but researchers suggest that it could have kept the participants more alert while they listened to the boring recording.
The study suggests that doodling could be something we should do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task rather than an unnecessary distraction we should try to resist doing.
So, next time when you are you're stuck on hold or zoning out during a dull meeting, you might want to reach for a pen and doodle and not just to kill your time. Doodling might help you remember snippets of key information that's mentioned during long conversations.
The researchers asked 40 adults who had just finished another psychology test to listen to a "rather dull" audio tape play for two and a half minutes and to write down the names of people who would definitely or probably be coming to a party. As they listened to the tape, half of the participants were encouraged to doodle on a piece of paper. They didn't have to draw freehand; instead, they were given a sheet of paper filled with outlines of squares and circles to shade in. For comparison, the other half of the group didn't doodle while listening to the tape.
One minute after the tape finished, participants took a pop quiz in which they had to recall the party-goers' names and places that were mentioned on the tape. They had not been told to listen for the places.
The doodlers recalled an average of "7.5 pieces of information (names and places), 29% more than the [average] of 5.8 recalled by the control group.
It is not exactly known how doodling helped but researchers suggest that it could have kept the participants more alert while they listened to the boring recording.
The study suggests that doodling could be something we should do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task rather than an unnecessary distraction we should try to resist doing.
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I would probably take a digital recorder to a boring meeting. That will make sure I won't miss anything. I do agree that doodling appears to improve attention span and helps memorizing more details without the help of a recorder.
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If I would start doodling, it would hardly improve my attention, it would more likely take my mind elsewhere.
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