How To Draw To Remember More

Hither is the full transcript of Graham Shaw'south TEDx Talk: How to Draw to Call back More at TEDxVienna conference.

Graham Shaw – Communication specialist

I wonder if you lot tin can chronicle to this. Accept you ever had problem remembering information? Lines of writing like this? When I was at school, ane manner I used to learn was this: I used to read.

And reading's a cracking way to learn, isn't it? But you know, sometimes my expression would be a chip like this. Because what I used to notice was that sometimes I'd be reading all these lines and they just weren't going in. Is this familiar to you? And I'd sometimes turn the paper over and attempt to remember it and my mind had just gone blank and I couldn't recall anything.

Then I'd start to get actually worried. I'd start to sweat and fret and go all anxious, especially if information technology got near to the examination.

And I thought to myself, "I'thou never going to remember any of this!" And I also thought to myself, "There must be an easier way, mustn't there?" And at that place is.

Because if nosotros take that information and we turn information technology into a picture show with a cartoon, we recollect it. Because when we draw, we call back more! But y'all know the merely trouble with that? People say, "That'southward a great idea just I can't draw." Simply I believe everybody tin can draw certainly well enough to make learning memorable. And today I'd like to show you how to do that.

We're going to showtime edifice upward our visual toolkit with, firstly, a circle. So get your paper ready. Let's have a go. Have your paper this way effectually like the flip chart. And we are going to start by only cartoon a circle similar that.

Next, what I'd like you to do is depict ii more circles and brand them into eyes. Then a nose. So a nice smile. And now over here, allow'due south try another one. Some more than eyes, this fourth dimension looking in this fashion and a nose.

And this time allow's practice a different expression a circle which we can shade in and we've got a shocked expression.

Allow's try one more than just down here. Another circumvolve! And this time draw the eyes, but looking upward, and then a nose. And now sentinel carefully, if you glimmer, y'all might miss it. A thoughtful expression.

So that'due south our offset shape in our visual toolkit, a circle. And everything nosotros're going to exercise is going to exist as piece of cake equally that. Then but turn your page over and we're going to build our visual tool kit up. This time once again have your folio in portrait way and we're going to begin over here. And the kickoff shape nosotros're going to practise is a diamond.

Then just depict that. And so we think, "What could nosotros make it into?" Put a triangle on the cease. Now I'one thousand going to put a petty eye there and a smile. Got a picayune fish! Perhaps some bubbles. In that location we are.

In the center depict a circle. At present connect the circle with a line to the fish. We'll call that number one. Now draw a line upward here. Nosotros'll call that number 2.

We're going to practice a circle again. Just watch. Here it goes. And next a couple of eyes looking that way. And now a olfactory organ and a smile. Something different. Two triangles on the top and side by side, three lines this way, 3 lines that way and nosotros've got a cat! Permit's go over this way.

Number 3. Let'southward draw a circumvolve at the peak. Now permit'southward draw a line down and then another line here to make a leg.

Next, nosotros're going to draw a line at that way and now an arm to the side and the other ane up like that. So we've got a figure. And if we put two little lines there could be a dancer. Allow's describe number four. That'due south going to be a triangle. And let'due south see what shape nosotros could make that into and what picture we could brand information technology into. Information technology looks like a boat with another triangle and a little line underneath. We could fifty-fifty put a flag on top and a bit of water there.

Next, come down here. Number 5. We're going to describe a rectangle. Only lookout man. But like that. And let'southward put some circles hither for wheels. We could make a little double-decker out of that rectangle. A horizontal line, two lines vertically for windows, and some people who are inside the motorcoach.

Side by side, let's draw a vertical line. Number half-dozen. A totally different shape this time. Let's become with a shape that looks a bit similar a cloud. But two vertical lines below and nosotros can make information technology into a tree.

Finally, number vii downwards here. We haven't done a foursquare yet. Allow's do a square and nosotros can put a triangle on peak, and then we combine the shapes in our visual tool kit. A little door and a couple of windows.

So there we are. We've used the shapes in our visual tool kit to create pictures and of course nosotros could create many more different pictures with that. And then… But the wonderful matter is the amazing power of your heed to run into pictures when they are non there. Because as you look at the picture now by just taking a mental picture, it kinda going 'click!' in your mind. Y'all can actually remember not but the pictures merely exactly where they are located on the page.

Then just turn your paper over and so you lot can't see and let'due south do a lilliputian experiment here and only accept a look. What I'm going to ask you to exercise now: I'm going to point to dissimilar places on the flip chart and just when I point to the fish, practise I want y'all to put your mitt up. So do you think the fish is upward here? No. Is the fish over hither? Is the fish here? Thank goodness for that.

What near the charabanc? Is the bus upwards here? Is the bus downwards here? You've got information technology, haven't you? And so, in fact y'all could recollect any of them that I'd asked. And fifty-fifty if I'd made it more complicated, yous probably could remember near of those drawings. And so drawing is a practiced fashion of remembering and at that place'due south some terrific enquiry effectually this.

A particular study was done at the University of Waterloo in Canada. And what they did was they asked people to recollect 30 words and they gave them 40 seconds per discussion. And they could either write the words for xl seconds and list them. So say a discussion like 'balloon'. They were all simple words like that. They wrote them.

Or the other job they were asked to practise was describe a uncomplicated picture of it. And so in that location'due south my balloon. Then they were given a sort of distraction task like a kind of filler task that was to practice with music, and then completely different, and then a surprise retention test. What did they find? What they establish was that people typically remembered twice as many pictures when they'd drawn them compared with when they'd written them.

So double the number of words were remembered when they'd been drawn. I thought that was terrific, of form. And the other matter I thought was really fascinating about it was: the quality of the drawings didn't appear to matter. In other words, people didn't need to exist artistically vivid in gild to create a drawing that stuck in their listen. And they even looked at other means of remembering to compare with drawing.

For case, they got people to visualize words, they got people to write descriptions of words, and they got people to look at pictures of words. In every unmarried case drawing ever came out on top. Then drawing was a great way to remember that list of words. And in my experience, drawing tin assistance united states to recollect much more than than lists. We tin can remember facts, we tin can think abstract concept, fifty-fifty whole topics with cartoon.