When you are sitting in class, have you ever drawn pictures in your notebooks? If so, you are doodling (涂鸦). Many people think of doodling as a distraction(分心)from more important things. But it might be just the opposite. Doodling might help one focus on work.
One study shows that doodling may help you remember things you hear. In 2009 researchers asked two groups of people to listen to a phone message. One group was encouraged to doodle, but the other was not. Neither group knew that it would be asked to remember information from the message. But the group that doodled remembered 29 % more.
Other people have suggested some other uses for doodling. Jesse Prinz, a professor who studies doodling, says it can help you think creatively. Walking away from a problem to draw might actually help you solve it. When you come back, you'll have a fresh idea and work out an answer more quickly.
A writer named Sunni Brown wrote a book on doodling. She argues that doodling is a tool that can help people think. She admits(承认) that people think of doodling as doing nothing, but she wants to change that. In fact, she runs a business that helps companies improve organization and planning through doodling.
Brown believes doodling is helpful because it includes many ways of learning. You learn in four ways: seeing, hearing, reading or writing, and movement. The more ways you use, the better you learn. And when you doodle while listening to a talk, you use all four.
You might think that being good at drawing is important for doodling. But if the purpose of doodling is to help you think, then it doesn't matter what the picture looks like. Even if you're not an artist, doodling can help you. Let's pick up a pen and doodle together!
