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Can drawing improve memory more effectively than note taking?

  • Swara Karthik
  • Aug 14
  • 4 min read

Note-taking is widely recognized as one of the most efficient forms of recording information– take, for example, schools, which expect students to write down important points from a lecture or to take notes while reading. However, what if making doodles, the very thing that many students are often punished for, proved to be more efficient than classic, written notes? Well, scientists think it just might be. According to results from a study performed on undergraduate students, drawing proved to be over twice as effective as written notes in aiding recall, and in another, subjects’ recall of pictures was consistently better than that of words. So what exactly were these studies, and how were they performed? Let’s zoom in on them– starting with a study conducted by professors at the University of Waterloo.


In this study, researchers Jeffrey Wammes, Melissa Meade, and Myra Fernandes tested students’ ability to recall lists of words using different methods of memorization. Specifically, they compared recall between students who drew their words and students who simply wrote them down. The researchers made sure to control various factors of the experiment– such as word length, word simplicity, and time allotted to recall– as well as collecting data on things like the subject’s ability to envision scenarios or previous artistic training. This data was collected before running the experiment to check for correlations later on. Their findings consistently found drawing to result in better recall, with students who drew remembering 45% of their words while students who wrote remembered only 20%. Even with subsequent testing and modified variables, like longer lists of words or different ways of presenting the words, there was no change in the results. Furthermore, none of the variables tested before the experiment correlated with the results, meaning that factors like artistic skill do not lower the effect of drawing. 


Clearly, drawing pictures excels in aiding recall; in fact, the phenomenon of images being more memorable than words even has a name in psychology: The Picture-Superiority Effect (PSE), proposed by psychologist Allan Paivio. But what’s so different about visuals and text? Could they be processed by the brain in fundamentally different ways? Well, according to Paivio’s Dual Coding Theory, the brain has two different forms of processing information– visually and semantically. This theory was also used to justify the PSE– the brain often processes images both visually AND semantically by assigning it a descriptive word. For example, upon seeing an apple, the brain processes it visually while simultaneously labeling it as “apple”. On the contrary, words are only processed semantically, with a visual connotation taking more effort to create. Paivio hypothesizes that this multi-processing of images is exactly what makes them more memorable. In fact, the researchers who conducted the first study we covered came to a similar conclusion, stating that “drawing improves memory by encouraging a seamless integration of semantic, visual, and motor aspects of a memory trace”. In other words, the engagement of multiple aspects of the brain when drawing causes it to be processed more thoroughly. The semantic and visual aspects cited by these researchers remind us of the Dual Coding Theory, but what about the additional component, motor? In this case, the very action of drawing is thought of as its own processing category, so was the PSE wrong? And further, might there be other types of processing? Well, there’s still one aspect we are yet to consider, and that concerns the brain itself.


While scientists are still split on how many parts of the brain are involved in processing memories, we do know that there are four main parts– the amygdala, which handles emotion; the hippocampus, which deals with logic and narration; the prefrontal cortex, which processes semantics; and the cerebellum, which focuses on motor aspects. While this seems to discredit the PSE, which only proposed two processes, it’s important to note that the “visual” path can be broadly applied to anything non-semantic. This differentiates the processing of words from any other form of stimulation, rather than strictly visuals. Extending this definition to the previous study’s findings, we can conclude that an event possessing qualities that appeal to multiple different parts of the brain are more memorable. This is referred to as multisensory processing, and is exactly why the students who drew their words performed better in recalling them!


After analyzing the effects of visual imagery and drawing on the brain, the answer to our initial question of whether drawing is better for memory than note-taking is a clear yes. We can also answer questions about the how and why of this phenomenon, alongside being able to take advantage of this information in our own lives. For example, sketchnoting to-do lists or lecture notes is a great alternative to traditional note-taking. That being said, there are still many components involved in memory that weren’t explored in this blog, such as how parts of the brain can hijack others or shut down under high pressure. All of these factors and more influence the way a memory solidifies in the brain, so while the PSE is a crucial part of understanding the way memories are processed, it is still only a piece of the extensive puzzle that is memory.



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