Doodling Improves Learning
06-12-2011 Managers and teachers, don't get pissed off if your employees or students are doodling in meetings or classes! I was sent to an expensive sales training course and my boss found doodling all over the seminar booklet and concluded that I had not listened to a thing the instructor said. He couldn't have been more incorrect. Have you ever created fun, or intricate drawings while talking on the phone or listening to a presentation? Most likely, unless you were completely bored, you were able to listen to what was being said, respond to the person on the phone and draw at the same time. If you were bored, then most likely you were thinking of your next vacation not the drawing. I knew someone who had a note pad beside the phone that was reserved for her phone call doodling. She said she could look back on pages and recall who she was talking to and what effect that phone call had on her energy levels just by examining the doodles.
According to a study published in the scientific journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, doodling can aid a person's memory by expending just enough energy to keep one from daydreaming.
Thus, it acts as a mediator between the spectrum of thinking too much or thinking too little and helps focus on the current situation. The study was done by Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, who reported that doodlers in his experiment recalled 29% more than the average of 5.8 recalled by the control group made of non-doodlers.
Not only this, but I argue that the space in which you occupy also affects the type of doodling you do. The sounds, smells, temperature and light within a room can all affect if you draw light and slow with soft edges or fast moving with hard weighted lines and jagged edges. If in a classroom situation, your doodles could be influenced by your mood or reaction to the particular lesson or to any interactions you see or participate in with other students.
The whole week while in Portland my doodles were very open, colourful and organic. Very much like the city itself and the lessons I was participating in. I believe my doodles helped me to experience the city more fully and deeply than if I would have just sat there and listened. Try it for yourself if you are not already an avid doodler.
















