By Janan Shoja Doost
A University of Guelph study found that traditional note-taking improves memory recall, attention and reduces mind-wandering, while doodling and fidgeting did not enhance these outcomes.
The study, conducted by graduate student Krysten Spencer-Mueller under the supervision of Dr. Mark Fenske, a professor in the Department of Psychology, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, explored whether doodling and fidgeting, typically viewed as signs of inattention, could actually improve learning by reducing boredom and enhancing memory retention.
“We are trying to understand how the cognitive components of things like attention and boredom work together to influence how we learn,” says Fenske.
The research involved two experiments where participants listened to lectures while either doodling, fidgeting, taking notes or simply listening. The team measured boredom, attention, mind-wandering and memory retention.
The results showed that doodling did not reduce boredom or improve attention or memory retention whereas note-taking led to better memory performance, higher attention levels and less mind-wandering.
“These findings challenge the view that doodling and fidgeting enhance learning, suggesting instead that they may reflect inattention,” says Fenske. “They show that we can benefit from tasks requiring closer attention, such as note-taking, to improve learning.
“Our work builds on a growing body of evidence that doodling or fidgeting are not effective learning tools.”
Fenske’s team is now focusing on how boredom and attention are affected by hearing loss.
“Our most recent work is looking at how the subjective impact of hearing loss is much worse for people who routinely experience boredom, and in part that is due to them having difficulty making up for their hearing loss because of their issues with attention,” he says.
This research was funded by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
