Doodle Your Way to Better Concentration
A new study in Applied Cognitive Psychology tells us that doodling might help concentration, as opposed to hindering it.
The basic theory is that doodling takes up very little brain bandwidth, but it might prevent us from zooming off on wild flights of fancy — which would require far more brain power.
In the experiment, 40 people listened to a list of names of people and places. After that, they were asked to write down the names they could remember. Half the subjects were asked to doodle (filling in shapes on a piece of paper); the other half not.
The doodlers remembered one-third more names than the non-doodlers. So, next time your boss catches you doodling in a meeting, just tell him or her: “I did it because of science.”
Image by drewdomkus via Flickr
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I’d love to send this study to my high school french teacher who used to get so angry at me for my constant doodling!
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I always used to doodle in class, and I swear it would help me concentrate. I agree with this theory – it uses a little brain space to complete your picture, but the rest of my brain can just listen to whatever is being said, and then take notes when appropriate.
One class which was particularly boring, I came up with my favorite doodle: a picture of a clock face. Then I would shade in the minutes that had gone by to show how long until class was over! Probably less productive than regular doodling, but it made getting through a long boring class easier!