Andrade et al

• Basic concepts common in cognitive psychology


  • Attention
  • Memory
  • Decision making
  • Language
• Social cognition


  How people process social information, like processing cues from others at a party
• Cognitive view


  Takes a mechanistic view of human behavior, considering the brain like a computer
• Input (sensory information)


  Processed in the brain, leading to Output (behavior)
• Focused attention


  Picking out specific information in your surroundings, like hearing your name called out
• Divided attention


  Splitting mental effort between a primary task (like driving) and a concurrent task (like talking)
• Daydreaming


  Getting lost in our thoughts, usually in a positive way, requiring greater central executive functioning
• Doodling


  Drawing random patterns while thinking about something else or when bored, a more visual-spatial task
• Past studies have found that doodling can help maintain arousal and reduce daydreaming
• This study aims to be the first experimental test on whether doodling aids concentration and enhances memory
• The study uses a laboratory experiment design with an independent variable, dependent variable, control, and random allocation
• Doodling


  Shading in shapes on paper to help with information processing and memory
• Aim of the studies


  • To investigate whether doodling helps information processing by enabling people to attend more effectively or enhancing their memory
• Research method


  Laboratory experiment
• Characteristics of a laboratory experiment


  • Has an independent variable
  • Has a dependent variable
  • Has levels of control
  • Has random allocation of participants
• Independent variable


  Doodling (doodling condition vs control condition)
• Dependent variable


  Memory recall (of names of partygoers and places)
• Operational definition of memory recall


  Correct answers minus false alarms
• Mishearings


  Answers that were similar enough to the original names in the recording
• Ignored answers were not considered correct (e.g. "sister" or "craig's sister")
• Counterbalancing was used, but for the order of the memory recall tasks (names vs places), not the independent variable
• Materials


  • Tape recording (2.5 minutes, 227 words per minute, monotonous voice, comfortable volume)
  • Paper and pencil for participants
  • Doodling group had paper with shapes to shade, control group had lined paper
• Sample


  40 participants, 18-55 years old, 15 females and 5 males, members of a medical research council
• One participant in the doodling condition did not doodle and was replaced
• Procedure


  1. Participants recruited immediately after another experiment

  2. Tested individually in a dull room

  3. Listened to recording and wrote down names of partygoers

  4. Surprise memory test after, with counterbalancing of order (names vs places)

  5. Debriefing asked if they suspected a memory test
• Primary task


  Monitoring the telephone message and writing down names of partygoers
• Doodling group had higher mean memory scores for both names of partygoers and places compared to control group
• Doodling group had a mean of 36.3 shaded shapes, with a range from 3 to 110
• Control group did not doodle at all
• Doodling group remembered more names of partygoers than control group (7.8 vs 7.1)
• Fewer people in doodling group had false alarms compared to control group (1 vs 5)
• More people in doodling group remembered all 8 names compared to control group (15 vs 9)
• The range of doodling was from 3 to 110 shapes, a lot of individual differences
• The control group had no doodling at all, as they were given lined paper to discourage doodling
• Names


  • The doodling group remembered more names than the control group (7.8 vs 7.1)
• False alarms


  • 1 person in the doodling condition and 5 in the control condition had false alarms
• Memorised all 8 names

  • 15 in the doodling condition and 9 in the control condition
• Overall recall (names and places)


  • The doodling group had a mean of 7.5 compared to 5.8 in the control group, a 29% better performance
• Monitoring of names


  • The doodling group had a mean of 7.7 with a standard deviation of 0.6, compared to the control group's mean of 6.9 and standard deviation of 1.3. The doodling group's performance was significantly higher at the p<0.01 level.
• Names were better recalled than places for both groups, likely because they were instructed to monitor the names