Effects of Doodling Style, Boredom, and Sensation Seeking on Recall Tasks.

Whether doodling positively or negatively affects memory is still to be determined. The underlying mechanisms of doodling's effect on memory have yet to be fully explored. This study examined the impact of doodling style, boredom, and sensation seeking on recall tasks using a dual‐task paradigm with...

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Published in:Scandinavian Journal of Psychology Vol. 67; no. 3; pp. 898 - 909
Main Authors: Xie, Linyu, Xu, Cheng, Gao, Rui, Yan, Wenhua
Format: research tables/charts Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell Jun2026
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      jtl: Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
      issn: 00365564
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      dt: Jun2026
      vid: 67
      iid: 3
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      pub: Wiley-Blackwell
      place: Malden, Massachusetts
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        193655710
        191195920
        193655710
        193655710
        10.1111/sjop.70074
        193655710
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        atl: Effects of Doodling Style, Boredom, and Sensation Seeking on Recall Tasks.
      aug:
        au:
          Xie, Linyu
          Xu, Cheng
          Gao, Rui
          Yan, Wenhua
        affil: School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
      sug:
        subj:
          Memory
          Emotions
          Attention
          Task Performance and Analysis
          Human
          Male
          Female
          Adolescence
          Adult
          Cognition
          Executive Function
          Mental Processes
          Reaction Time
          Problem Solving
          Adaptation, Psychological
          Two-Way Analysis of Variance
          Paired T-Tests
          One-Way Analysis of Variance
          Statistical Significance
          Data Analysis Software
          Descriptive Statistics
          Scales
          Adolescent: 13-18 years
          Adult: 19-44 years
          Male
          Female
      ab: Whether doodling positively or negatively affects memory is still to be determined. The underlying mechanisms of doodling's effect on memory have yet to be fully explored. This study examined the impact of doodling style, boredom, and sensation seeking on recall tasks using a dual‐task paradigm with a 3 (doodling method: structured doodling/unstructured doodling/no doodling) × 2 (boredom level: high/low) two‐factor between‐participants design. Key findings included an interaction between doodling style and boredom level on recall test performance, where participants in the no‐doodling group significantly improved their recall test performance. In contrast, those in the unstructured doodling group exhibited a significant decline in recall performance under high boredom conditions. Furthermore, participants' performance on the recall task diminished as the complexity and quality of their drawings increased. These findings offer insights into strategies for reducing boredom and enhancing memory in educational and professional settings by shedding light on the effects of doodling styles, boredom levels, and sensation‐seeking tendencies on recall tasks. Keypoints: We investigated the impact of doodling styles and boredom on memory using a dual‐task paradigm.Unstructured doodling impairs recall performance, particularly under high boredom levels.Boredom level interacts with doodling style to influence memory outcomes. High boredom leads to improved recall in the no‐doodling group but worsened recall in the unstructured doodling group.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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