Wired examines a study that finds doodling may help students pay attention.
"Asked to remember names they'd heard on a recording, people who doodled while listening had better recall than those who didn't. This suggests that a slightly distracting secondary task may actually improve concentration during the performance of dull tasks that would otherwise cause a mind to wander."
Before we ask all our students to start doodling during lessons, or provide online doodle tools for our elearning content, it should be noted that the study found that doodling helps subjects pay attention during "dull" tasks.
The subjects were asked to memorize a string of random names, with no context.
"'People may doodle as a strategy to help themselves concentrate,' said study co-author Jackie Andrade, a University of Plymouth psychologist. 'We might not be aware that we're doing it, but it could be a trick that people develop because it helps them from wandering off into a daydream.'"
So doodling may be a mechanism to stop people from tuning out altogether. But there is no evidence to suggest that it enhances learning where the content is engaging and relevant to the learner and provided in context.
Also, like the recent study regarding podcasts, the sample size in this study was rather limited. 40 students were studied, half doodled, while the other half did not.
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