Doodling to Higher Learning

In “The Power of the Doodle: Improve Your Focus and Memory”, neuroscientists evaluates the brain’s attentiveness, alertness, and memory during times when students are doodling during lectures. Prior assumptions accumulated that the student is less focused and inattentive when doodling on his or her paper. Now, research is unveiled that doodling in fact has more to offer than just curvy lines or block lettering. Doodling provides a method of mundane drawing, which allows the student’s brain to collect, gather, and coordinate one’s thoughts. During coursework, doodling provides an outlet for the cohesion of ideas, and serves as a memory tool. An experiment validated the memory improvement of doodling during a monotone lecture. These students who doodled performed about 30% better on a memory quiz than students who did not doodle.

This article has strong correlations to other neuroscience literature like The Ravenous Brain by Daniel Bor. In Bor’s novel, he explains the hierarchy of the brain briefly. Bor explains that “there is a remarkably common tendency for information stored on one level to combine to create a richer concept at a higher level” (Bor 78). Much like Shellenbarger’s article, a seemingly absent-minded activity facilitates a way for greater learning. Both Bor and Shellenbarger identify that the workings of the brain are complex. However, Bor elaborately more fully on the complexities of the brain by elaborating on the concepts of patterns. Bor identifies the drive to unveil and discover patterns, not just dozens of factual information. The emphasis on patterns drives the natural world to find meaning and ensure survival. Interestingly enough, the conceptual explanation of patterns in Bor’s novel connects to the patterned doodling of a student’s notebook. The emphasis on patterns is realized in the drawings of student’s minds. Bor stated that “many animals are constantly, almost desperately, looking for patterns” (Bor 79). One example of pattern seeking can be found alongside the pages of countless notebooks. Drawing patterns may be innate, but its realization within a class could prove beneficial to learning, focus, and memory.

Bor, Daniel. The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning. New York: Basic, 2012. Print.

Shellenbarger, Sue. "The Power of the Doodle: Improve Your Focus and Memory." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.