If you’ve ever doodled in the margins of your notebook and thought it was just a distraction, science has news for you: that little sketch might have helped you remember more than you realize. A remarkable study by Fernandes, Wammes, and Meade (2018) reveals that drawing is not just a creative outlet—it is a surprisingly powerful memory-enhancing tool, outstripping many of the traditional methods students and educators rely on.
Drawing > Writing: A Memory Boosting Game-Changer
For decades, note-taking has been synonymous with writing. But what if drawing could double or even triple the retention of information compared to simply writing it down? That’s exactly what this research found. Across multiple experiments, participants who drew items they were trying to remember consistently outperformed those who just wrote them, even when both groups were given the same amount of time.
This isn’t just about pretty pictures—many of the drawings were basic or even messy. What mattered wasn’t the artistic quality but the act of creating a visual representation of information. Drawing taps into what the researchers call an integrated memory trace, engaging three distinct cognitive components:
- Elaborative encoding (you think deeply about what the word means),
- Motor action (you move your hand to draw), and
- Pictorial processing (you see the image you’re creating).
Together, these create a rich, context-laden memory that’s far easier to recall.
Better Than Visualization and Semantic Elaboration
Many educators already encourage visual imagery or deep thinking (semantic elaboration) to improve memory. However, Fernandes and her team directly compared these strategies with drawing—and drawing still won. Even viewing pictures or mentally visualizing words did not yield the same recall benefit as sketching them out, suggesting that the added motor component of drawing gives it a significant edge.
Works in Real-World and Academic Settings
Crucially, this isn’t just a lab phenomenon. The drawing effect held up in classroom environments and worked not just with isolated words, but also with textbook-style definitions. When participants were asked to draw representations of terms like “spore” or “isotope,” their memory for these concepts outperformed those who simply wrote them out, even when the writing was done carefully or with elaboration.
This implies that doodling in your biology class—or even replacing written notes with concept sketches—might be a surprisingly effective learning hack.
Drawing as a Memory Aid for Aging and Cognitive Impairment
Perhaps the most inspiring part of this research is its potential for older adults and people with memory-related conditions. The study found that the memory benefits of drawing were not only preserved in older adults—they were even greater compared to younger participants. Remarkably, patients with dementia also showed significant memory improvement when they drew rather than wrote words, despite their drawings being crude or minimal.
This opens exciting possibilities for using drawing as a non-invasive, low-cost memory support tool in aging populations and clinical care.
No Talent Required
One of the most encouraging findings? Artistic talent didn’t matter. Participants with no drawing experience or low visual imagery ability still saw memory improvements. This makes drawing an accessible strategy for virtually everyone—from schoolchildren to seniors.
The Takeaway: Drawing as a Cognitive Swiss Army Knife
Drawing doesn’t just help you remember—it helps you understand. It forces you to think about meaning, imagine form, and commit that form to paper in a unique, self-generated way. It integrates thinking, seeing, and doing—making it one of the most comprehensive memory strategies we have.
In a world saturated with high-tech learning tools, it’s refreshing to rediscover a low-tech, time-tested technique that anyone can use: draw to remember.
Citation:
Fernandes, M. A., Wammes, J. D., & Meade, M. E. (2018). The Surprisingly Powerful Influence of Drawing on Memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(5), 302–308. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418755385