FRIDAY, Feb. 27 (HealthDay News) -- You might look like you're not paying attention when you doodle, but science says otherwise.

Researchers in the United Kingdom found that test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message's details than those who didn't doodle. The findings were published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

"If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream," study researcher Professor Jackie Andrade, of the School of Psychology at the University of Plymouth, said in a news release issued by the journal's publisher. "Daydreaming distracts them from the task, resulting in poorer performance. A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task."
For the experiment, a two-and-a-half minute listing of several people's names and places was played for test subjects, who were charged with writing down only the names of the people said to be attending a party. During the recording, half the participants were asked to simultaneously shade in shapes on a piece of paper without attention to neatness. Participants were not told they were taking part in a memory test.

When the recording ended, all were asked for the eight names of those attending the party as well as eight place names mentioned in the audio. Those asked to doodle wrote down, on average, 7.5 names and places, while those who didn't doodle listed only 5.8.

"In psychology, tests of memory or attention will often use a second task to selectively block a particular mental process," Andrade said. "If that process is important for the main cognitive task, then performance will be impaired. My research shows that beneficial effects of secondary tasks, such as doodling, on concentration may offset the effects of selective blockade."

In everyday life, Andrade said, doodling "may be something we do because it helps to keep us on track with a boring task, rather than being an unnecessary distraction that we should try to resist doing."

Well prelims are over BUT there is still
Chem "O" level SPA next week
Phy "O" level SPA on week 10
Papers to be returned (Is this good or Bad news ?)
the 2 geo essays ur say ur do on tourist to mr yong and all of u hav not done the essay on sustainable tourism
the Eng compre

This is only the first Prelim so dun be too sad about ur result or get too complacent THERE IS 2 more Prelims AND most importantly the REAL "O" Level examination

Ong Toon Yang still owes $25
Bryan Lee Hui Young still owes $10
Lee Ji En still owes $10
Loo Leong Shuen still owes $10
Bentley Ong still owes $10
Tan Zhen Wei still owes $10
Yu Ruo Fan still owes $10

PS: i didn't agree to the air-con for the class is juz that for the next week there is a more important reason to on air-con.