“涂鴉”的說法來自唐代盧仝《示添丁》中的詩句“忽來案上翻墨汁，涂抹詩書如老鴉”。古人寫字用墨汁，寫出來的東西自然也是與烏鴉的顏色一樣。盧仝說自己的作品“如老鴉”，既生動又風趣。涂鴉除了可以宣泄情感，甚至還能幫助你提高記憶力。當然，在公共場所亂寫亂畫除外。

Doodling may look messy, but it could in fact be a sign of an alert mind, a study suggests.
涂鴉雖然看上去亂七八糟，但是研究發現，涂鴉其實是大腦活躍的表現。

Plymouth University researchers carried out memory tests on 40 volunteers, asking them to listen to a phone call and recall names and places.
普利茅斯大學的研究人員對40名自愿者進行了記憶測試，要求他們聽上一段電話，然后復述聽到的人名和地名。

Doodlers performed 29% better than non-doodlers, the team found.
研究小組發現，涂鴉者的表現比沒有涂鴉的人好了29%。

Experts said doodling stopped people from daydreaming, and so was good at helping people focus on mundane tasks.
專家表示，涂鴉可以防止人們走神，并幫助他們專注于平凡的瑣事。

During the study, half of the volunteers were asked to colour in shapes on a piece of paper while they listened to a 2.5 minute telephone message. The other half were left to their own devices while they listened. Both groups were told the message would be dull, the Applied Cognitive Psychology journal reported. Afterwards, both groups were asked to write down eight specific names and eight places mentioned.
《應用認知心理學》雜志的報告稱，在測試中，一半的志愿者接聽2分半鐘的電話時需要在紙上給不同的形狀涂顏色，另一半則可以隨意地涂鴉。兩組接聽的電話信息都是枯燥乏味的。隨后志愿者需要寫出八個具體的人名和八個電話中提到的地名。

The doodlers on average recalled 7.5, while the non-doodlers only managed 5.8.
結果顯示，涂鴉組能平均記住7.5個名字，而未涂鴉組平均只能記住5.8個名字。

Lead researcher Jackie Andrade said: "If someone is doing a boring task, like listening to a dull telephone conversation, they may start to daydream. Daydreaming distracts them from the task, resulting in poor performance. "
研究小組負責人杰克?安德雷德說：“如果某人在從事一項無聊的事情時，比如聽一段沒有趣味的電話錄音，人們很容易走神，導致效率低下。”

"A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task."
“如果進行一些簡單工作，比如隨手涂鴉，就可以停止走神，從而提高手頭工作的效率。”

Professor Alan Badeley, from the British Psychological Society, said: "Doodling is a relatively undemanding task so this makes sense.
英國心理學協會教授阿倫?巴德里表示，涂鴉是一種相對簡單的動作，它能夠保持頭腦清醒。

"The temptation during meetings or telephone conversations that you are not particularly engaged with is to start thinking about things. You visualise things such as holidays. That then takes you away from the task at hand. Or you may even end up nodding off. "
“開會或者通電話的時候，你可能很難集中精神以至于開小差，比如你開始想象假期的情景。如果不把你從胡思亂想中拉回來，你甚至可能打瞌睡。”

"However, by comparison, doodling is not that taxing and keeps you more alert so you are more likely to absorb what is being said."
“相反地，涂鴉簡單易行，而且讓人頭腦清醒，這樣就能更容易地接收信息。”

（來源：北外網院 英語點津Jennifer編輯）