Every assignment I turn in has some sort of doodle on it. Whether it’s Spider-Man or a character from my recent anime craze, there is a doodle on my assignment.
When my Film Studies teacher, Mr. Truesdell, told me that doodling has positive benefits to students, I wasn’t surprised, for I doodle to help with my stress.
However, stress relief is only one of the many benefits that come with idly scribbling on a page.
One perk is a boost in memory. In 2009, psychologist Jackie Andrade asked 40 people to monitor students during a two-and-a-half-minute voice mail message embedded in the lecture. Half of the students took this time to doodle, while the other half did not. When asked to recall the information during the lecture, the students who doodled recalled 29 percent more information than those who did not doodle.
The action of doodling may stem from the human nature of fight or flight, which could be the reason the students remembered more information. When people are bored, fight or flight kicks in to keep them awake and alert. The act of doodling keeps students from falling asleep during boring lectures, allowing their brains to remain active.
Along with enhanced memory, doodling encourages mindfulness. Some may think that doodling is a mindless activity, but it can actually help calm the brain similar to a cool down following an intense physical workout. Mindfulness encourages students to be in the present, helping them retain the information from the lesson.
The act of being mindful helps contribute to enhanced memory. Episodic memory, or the remembrance of past events, is heavily influenced by how students are in the moment. Whether students are mindful or stressed, the results are seen in memory.
Doodling during class is a way to lower stress levels, which affects memory. Finding ways to deal with stress is difficult for students, but the answer is within the pencil. The repetition and rhythm of doodling in the margins activate relaxation. The relaxation response reduces the stress hormone cortisol, countering the fight-or-flight response. The relaxation felt by students who doodle helps them concentrate during class.
Doodles often look scattered and random, but they aren’t as random as one may think. Dr. Robert Burns used doodles to diagnose students with mental health issues, like stress. Burns believes that the doodles on assignments contains clues to the subconscious mind. The shapes drawn can help doctors understand the state of students’ minds.
For instance, one of the most commonly drawn doodles is a tree. However, the type of tree may say a lot about the student. Full, leafy trees can possibly suggest that the student is energetic with a strong will to live. A narrow, leafless tree, on the other hand, may indicate that the spirit of the student is waning.
Dr. Burns is not the only believer in the secrets of doodling. Renowned neurologist Sigmund Freud also believed that something lay beneath the doodles. When studying Freud’s ideas in my 10th grade psychology class, my classmates and I were instructed to doodle a house. Once the doodle was finished, we were instructed to look at what our drawings really represented. Our teacher, Mr. Warner, then discussed how the number of windows, trees, flowers, etc., may have connected to our subconscious thoughts.
Along with helping students stay focused and lowering their stress levels, doodling enhances creativity. The simple act of putting pen to paper and doodling in the margins helps the brain access the right hemisphere, which houses creativity.
Doodlers like me, however, do not always have it easy. Last year, for instance, I had a teacher who got angry when we doodled in the margins of handouts and tests. Perhaps that teacher was not aware of the immense benefits that students derive from doodling.
Who knew there was so much power in a pencil stroke?
