Do You Doodle?

If you are having a long conversation on the phone, do you just sit still and enjoy the sounds of the voice on the other end of the phone, or do you seek out a pen and a piece of paper and start drawing cute little pictures or shapes? This action, commonly known as doodling, is something that many of us do when we are involved in a phone conversation. Personally I am the Doodle Queen. I work in a call centre and by the end of my shift, I always have to throw 3 pieces of paper in the bin as they are always filled with my pointless pictures and scribbles.  Despite the pen scribble that I do, I always seem to be able to carry a perfectly fluent conversation with the respondant on the other line. This mindless act that we all seem to carry out when listening to another person talk actually has benefits and a purpose.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, doodling while listening can help with remembering details of a conversation. In the study subjectswere asked to listen to a dull two and a half minute tape giving several names of people and places, and were told to write down only the names of people going to a party. 20 of the participants were asked to shade in shapes on a piece of paper at the same time, but paying no attention to neatness. None of the participants were told it was a memory test. After the tape had finished, all participants in the study were asked to recall the eight names of the party-goers which they were asked to write down, as well as eight additional place names which were included as incidental information. The doodlers recalled on average 7.5 names of people and places compared to only 5.8 by the non-doodlers.

But what is it about these meaningless little pictures that help us remember more about a converstation? According to Professor Jackie Andrade at the University of Plymouth, the answer lies in daydreaming:

“If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream… [which] 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. My research shows that beneficial effects of secondary tasks, such as doodling, on concentration may offset the effects of selective blockade. This study suggests that in everyday life 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.”

However, I have my own theory as to why doodling may improve our memory for boring conversations, and it all has to do with associations. For example, there is research that suggest that we associate smells with certain events in our past and we are often reminded of those past events/people when we experience that particular smell. Similarly, I think that when we are involved in a boring conversation, we associate what the person is saying with the picture that we are drawing at that particular time. So that when we are thinking back over the conversation and trying to remember what was said, we cast our minds back to what we were doing at the time (which was doodling). We remember that picture and what the topic of conversation was when we were drawing that picture.

What do you think?

Do you doodle when you are listening to a conversation?

Does it help you to remember what was said?

Why do you think people doodle?

What do you draw when you doodle?

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