Anyone who enters a classroom or a university lecture hall will hardly find a table that is completely free of scribbles. A few years ago the small works of art even made it into an exhibition. The Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences has collected the most beautiful table doodles from the last decades and shown them online. But what is actually behind it when we scribble in the notepad during lectures or during phone calls?
Maybe, like me in school, you were warned to listen better when a teacher caught you diligently drawing little flowers, squares or animals on the edge of your college notebook. But the accusation is unfounded: “Anyone who doodles is not necessarily inattentive, on the contrary. If we doodle during a lecture or while on the phone, it can even increase concentration,” said Michael Minge, Professor of Innovation Psychology at the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Technology in a message.
In an experiment in 2009, psychologist Jackie Andrade examined how doodles affected memory performance. The result: In a surprising memory test, doodlers were able to remember more information than those who just listened. English studies show that memory performance can be increased by 30 percent while doodling. This means that you can recall the content you have recorded 30 percent better if you have scribbled while recording the content. “By doodling we activate ourselves to process content and not let our thoughts wander.”
A report on medical students’ learning methods shows how helpful doodling can be when it comes to memorizing large amounts of information. Just 30 minutes of coloring on the pad helps students remember information better.
Certainly most people don’t create great works of art in their notebooks, because those who just paint in front of themselves hardly give any thought to the motif and composition. And yet the doodles perhaps seem to have more significance than some might think. On the Harvard Medical School Health Blog, Dr. Robert Burns from the University of Seattle reports. He uses his patients’ drawings to learn more about their emotional problems. In his opinion, the doodles can provide information about what is going on in the subconscious of the illustrator.
Michael Minge knows why we often doodle geometric shapes and flowers: “Anyone who paints geometric shapes deals intensively with a problem or question and tries to bring structure into it. The geometric figures can also indicate decision-making problems.” On the other hand, anyone who decorates the block sheet with flowers is either already in a positive mood or wants to put themselves in a positive mood through the small works of art.
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