The BrainCanDo team are currently working on conducting a piece of research to assess whether drawing improves memory. Our research aims to benefit students studying for their exams by helping them to study in the most effective way.
To conduct this research, we are working in conjunction with Dr Myra Fernandes from the University of Waterloo in Canada, who has conducted a study concerning the relationship between drawing and memory. Dr Fernandes conducted her research with adults. We have used a similar method to that done by Dr Fernandes for our research but modified it slightly to work with adolescents.
As students in the U6, we are studying for our A Level exams. This study enables us to see the most effective way to revise (whether it is by drawing out words/concepts or writing them) and we will hopefully be developing ways that we will able to apply this to our studies.
Having already experienced most of our time at school, we understand the difficulties faced by younger students who are struggling to memorise important information for examinations and work out which revision method suits them best. By conducting this research, we are hoping to help educate younger students and advise them on the best way to revise/learn information for examinations.
To conduct our research, we worked with students from the 4s and U4s. The experiment took place in the school hall which was set out as it would be during an examination.
In the first session, the students were split evenly into two groups. The first group was condition A (drawing) and the second, condition B (writing). All participants were shown the same word (e.g. dog, mat, tree) for a period of 30 seconds and asked to either draw or write this word as many times as possible on a sheet of paper. This was repeated and we went through 20 words. The BrainCanDo prefects then gave a short presentation on mindfulness to distract the participants. After this, the students were given 40 seconds to write down as many words as they could remember.
A few months later, the same students returned to take place in the second session of the experiment. This time the participants were not split into 2 groups. When the words appeared on the screen, the slide also informed the students to either draw or write. This meant that all participants where tested to see whether they could remember the drawn words better than the written words. In between learning and recall, the students went outside for a few minutes before completing a dance workout routine. This meant that the students were physically active. Additionally, the students were given some riddles to take their minds off rehearsal. The students were then given 40 seconds to write down as many words as they could remember.
We are currently in the process of analysing the data from the research to see whether drawing produces higher recall rates than writing.
