3.1 Andrade (Doodling)

Question 1

What is the psychology being investigated in Andrade?

Answer 1

Doodling when doing a primary task can take up some important cognitive resources away from the intended primary task therefore reducing the overall cognitive processing speed. It divides attention.
However, Andrade suggested that doodling can aid attention and memory by raising arousal levels when bored.
Boredom can lead to daydreaming which uses important cognitive resources that are intended for the primary task, so doodling prevents this from happening.

Question 2

What is a primary task?

Answer 2

the activity we are supposed to be concentrating on, even though we may be doing something else as well, such as doodling

Question 3

What is attention?

Answer 3

the concentration of mental effort on a particular stimulus. It may be focused or divided

Question 4

What is day-dreaming?

Answer 4

mildly altered state of consciousness in which we experience a sense of being ‘lost in our thoughts’ and detachment from our environment

Question 5

What is arousal?

Answer 5

the extent to which we are alert

Question 6

What is dodling?

Answer 6

the sketching of patterns and figures that are unrelated to the primary task

Question 7

Aim of Andrade

Answer 7

To investigate if doodling improves our ability to pay attention to auditory information
To investigate whether doodling affects later recall of auditory information

Question 8

Research method and design

Answer 8

Laboratory experiment
Independent measures design ( random allocation was used to assign participants into each condition)

Question 9

IVs and DVs

Answer 9

IV- whether participants were allowed to doodle or not when listening to the phone message

DV-
Monitoring Accuracy
Memory for monitored information
Memory for incidental information
(pg. 67 Hodder)

Question 10

Sample and sampling technique

Answer 10

40 members of a participant panel at the UK’s Medical Research Council
18- 55 years
paid a small sum for participation
20 participants per group, 2 males in control and 3 in doodling rest female
opportunity sample- asked to join the study immediately after participating in an unrelated experiment for a different researcher (done to enhance boredom)

Question 11

Materials given to the doodling and control group

Answer 11

control-
A4 lined sheet and pencil
doodling-
A4 sheet printed with alternating rows of 10 squares and circles and had wide margins and pencil

Question 12

What names were considered false alarms?

Answer 12

names that were on the tape but not part-goers
completely new names generated by the participants

Question 13

How was the final memory score for monitored and incidental information calculated?

Answer 13

Number of correct names/ places minus false alarms

Question 14

Mock telephone details

Answer 14

2.5 minutes
monotonous voice at an average speed of 227 words per minute
eight names of people attending the party and 3 people and 1 cat who did not go
8 place names mentioned

Question 15

Standardised instructions given to the participants

Answer 15

They were told to pretend the speaker was a friend
told to write down the names of the people attending the party and ignore the names of people who are not coming and don’t write anything else
For the doodling condition was asked to shade the shapes to relieve boredom

Question 16

What was the monitoring and recall task?

Answer 16

Monitoring task- names of people going to the party
Recall task- names of places mentioned

The order of these tests was counterbalanced

Question 17

What was the mean number of shapes shaded and range

Answer 17

36.3
range: 3-110
no participants in the control group doodled
one participant in doodling condition did not doodle and was replaced

Question 18

Results-
Mean recall score minus false alarms

Answer 18

Doodlers-
names- 5.1
places- 2.4
total- 7.5
Control-
names-4.0
places-1.8
total- 5.8

Question 19

Methodological strengths

Answer 19

the highly standardised procedure, same audio recording, same dull and quiet room- reliability and valid because the difference in conditions was because of doodling

limit uncontrollable variables, listening at a comfortable volume, using a recorded message so words are said in the same way

operationalisation of doodling by providing doodling sheets- validity (weakness in hodder because can doodle freely, limited to shapes)

participants varied in aged 18-55- representative of adult ages

quantitative data- objective

order for recalling monitored and incidental information was counterbalanced so this reduces order effects- improves validity

re-analysed data without results from participants who suspected a test on names of places- validity

use of lures allowed Andrade to measure participants’ concentration

Question 20

Methodological weakness

Answer 20

majority of sample was female- lowers generalisability to male population

low ecological validity and mundane realism

sample from a recruitment panel and the kinds of people who volunteer for such panels are similar- lowers generalizability

Question 21

ethical issues

Answer 21

participants were unable to give full informed consent as they were given an unexpected test on place names
they were debriefed later

Question 22

Real-life application

Answer 22

recommend teachers to prevent punishing students when they doodle and instead encourage it