Psychology Andrade
Doodling
• Title:
• What does doodling do?
• Year: 2010
Psychology being investigated
• People have known to daydream frequently when presented with something boring.
Background
• Prior to this study it was not known whether the act of doodling does impair attention processes
by taking away resources form the primary attention task or whether it actually aids
concentration towards the primary task, additionally maintaining arousal.
• It is common in research on attention to pose the participants with dual tasks to monitor
performance, and then see which cognitive processes are needed to complete these tasks.
Aims
• To test whether doodling aided concentration in a boring task.
Procedure
• Research Method: Laboratory Experiment
• Experimental Design: Independent Groups
• IV: Doodling and Control Group
• DV: Mean correct, recall, false alarms and memory scores
• Sample: 40 members of the MRC Applied Psychology Unit participant panel at the University of
Plymouth (UK). They were aged 18-55 and paid for participating. Participants were assigned
randomly to the control (20 - 18 females and 2 males) or doodling (20 - 17 females and 3 males)
group.
• Sampling Technique: Opportunity Sampling (they had volunteered for a di erent study and
were then recruited)
• The researcher recorded a mock telephone message using a cassette recorder.
• A fairly monotonous voice was used.
• Average speaking rate was 227 words per minute.
• The recording was being played at a comfortable volume for the participant to listen to.
• The script included names of 8 people who would be attending a party alongside the names of
3 people and 1 cat who would not attend. 8 place names were also mentioned.
• Participants were recruited just after nishing an unrelated experiment for another researcher,
and were asked they would mind spending another 5 minutes helping with research.
• The intention was to enhance the boredom of the task by testing people who were already
thinking about going home.
• The participants were randomly assigned to the two conditions.
• Participants were tested individually in a quiet and visually dull room
• They were asked to note down the names of all people attending the party and nothing else.
They were also told that they do not need to remember any of it.
• Participants in the control condition were given a piece of lined paper and a pencil.
• Participants in the doodling group were given a piece of A4 paper with alternating rows of 10
squares and circles, 1 cm in diameter, with a 4.5 cm margin on the left-hand side where they
could write any target information.
• The doodling group was asked to shade the shapes.
• They were told that “it does not matter how neatly or quickly you do this - it is just something to
help relieve the boredom.”
• Participants listened to the tape for 2.5 minutes and wrote down the information as directed.
• As soon as the recording nished, the researcher came in and collected the sheets and talked
to the participants for a minute.
fi fi fi ff
Doodling
• Title:
• What does doodling do?
• Year: 2010
Psychology being investigated
• People have known to daydream frequently when presented with something boring.
Background
• Prior to this study it was not known whether the act of doodling does impair attention processes
by taking away resources form the primary attention task or whether it actually aids
concentration towards the primary task, additionally maintaining arousal.
• It is common in research on attention to pose the participants with dual tasks to monitor
performance, and then see which cognitive processes are needed to complete these tasks.
Aims
• To test whether doodling aided concentration in a boring task.
Procedure
• Research Method: Laboratory Experiment
• Experimental Design: Independent Groups
• IV: Doodling and Control Group
• DV: Mean correct, recall, false alarms and memory scores
• Sample: 40 members of the MRC Applied Psychology Unit participant panel at the University of
Plymouth (UK). They were aged 18-55 and paid for participating. Participants were assigned
randomly to the control (20 - 18 females and 2 males) or doodling (20 - 17 females and 3 males)
group.
• Sampling Technique: Opportunity Sampling (they had volunteered for a di erent study and
were then recruited)
• The researcher recorded a mock telephone message using a cassette recorder.
• A fairly monotonous voice was used.
• Average speaking rate was 227 words per minute.
• The recording was being played at a comfortable volume for the participant to listen to.
• The script included names of 8 people who would be attending a party alongside the names of
3 people and 1 cat who would not attend. 8 place names were also mentioned.
• Participants were recruited just after nishing an unrelated experiment for another researcher,
and were asked they would mind spending another 5 minutes helping with research.
• The intention was to enhance the boredom of the task by testing people who were already
thinking about going home.
• The participants were randomly assigned to the two conditions.
• Participants were tested individually in a quiet and visually dull room
• They were asked to note down the names of all people attending the party and nothing else.
They were also told that they do not need to remember any of it.
• Participants in the control condition were given a piece of lined paper and a pencil.
• Participants in the doodling group were given a piece of A4 paper with alternating rows of 10
squares and circles, 1 cm in diameter, with a 4.5 cm margin on the left-hand side where they
could write any target information.
• The doodling group was asked to shade the shapes.
• They were told that “it does not matter how neatly or quickly you do this - it is just something to
help relieve the boredom.”
• Participants listened to the tape for 2.5 minutes and wrote down the information as directed.
• As soon as the recording nished, the researcher came in and collected the sheets and talked
to the participants for a minute.
fi fi fi ff
