New research published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology suggests that doodling as a way of passing time when you are bored may actually help you better concentrate on streaming information.

In an interview with Rhetology.com, study author Dr. Jackie Andrade explained that, “Because doodling is a visual task, it doesn’t directly interfere with the verbal task of listening. However, a certain amount of attention or mental control is needed to combine the two tasks, listening and doodling. Without this need to combine the two tasks, these control processes are freed up for daydreaming. Daydreaming then saps more mental energy and impairs listening ability.”

To explore the relationship between doodling and concentration while listening, Dr. Andrade conducted an experiment that evaluated whether doodling would improve or hinder attention to the primary task of listening. She recruited 40 participants from the general population aged 18 to 55 years. The subjects were randomly assigned to either a doodling group or to a control group, which did not doodle.

Both groups listened to a mock telephone message, which was recorded with a “fairly monotone voice” at a moderate speaking rate and lasted 2.5 minutes. The message included eight names of people attending a party, the names of three people and a cat who could not attend, eight place names, as well as much irrelevant material. The doodlers used a pencil to shade rows of circles and squares. The shapes were pre-drawn so the subjects would not feel self-conscious about their drawings or whether the content of their drawings was the true focus of the study.

As they listened to the recording, the subjects were asked to write down the names of those who could attend the party on response sheets, which were collected by the interviewer. Then when the message was over, the subjects were asked again to remember the names those going to the party and the places mentioned on the message.

According to the results, on average, participants in the doodling group correctly wrote down more names while listening to the recording than the non-doodling group. The between-group differences for monitoring were statistically significant, the author noted.

In addition, those in the doodling group recalled more names and places than the control group after listening to the message. On average, non-doodling group remembered 5.8 pieces of information while the test group remembered 7.5 names and places, which was nearly 30% more information recalled.

In a Q&A with Rhetology.com, Dr. Andrade expanded on the findings.

Rhetology: Do you think that drawing images while listening to streaming information is important to improving attention and memory retention versus taking text notes only? Is the visual/pictorial aspect of doodling particularly crucial to aiding concentration when listening to streaming information?

Dr. Andrade: Doodling is better than daydreaming, but the best thing of all is to be able to concentrate fully on the main listening task. Taking text notes probably helps you do that better than drawing irrelevant pictures. However, converting what you hear into pictures is good because you remember the material in two ways, verbally and visually, which improves your chances of remembering it.

Rhetology: Doodling while listening is often perceived as being rude and inattentive. How do you see your study changing the perception of students (or any audience) who draw during a presentation?

Dr. Andrade: It’s good and bad. Good because it means you are doing something to stay focused on the presentation, bad because it means you are finding the talk dull and you are struggling to concentrate.

Rhetology: Would you recommend doodling or to drawing visual representations of the presented information to the general public?

Dr. Andrade: I’d recommend drawing something related to what you are listening to, so you are really working at processing the information and making sense of it.