Go Ahead, Doodle

Have you ever found yourself mindlessly doodling while sitting in a boring meeting or class? I do — a lot. I always thought it was just a tactic to keep my mind busy, plus I enjoy drawing. Now I’m learning that there are other benefits to doodling.

According to researchers in the United Kingdom, doodling helps your memory. 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.

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.

One of the study researchers, Professor Jackie Andrade, suggested that doodling may be sufficient to stop daydreaming, which distracts people and results in poor performance. However, the simple act of doodling seems to keep people focused without affecting performance on the main task.

So the next time the urge to doodle hits you, don’t resist. Go ahead, it’s good for your brain.