涂鸦”的说法来自唐代卢仝《示添丁》中的诗句“忽来案上翻墨汁，涂抹诗书如老鸦”。古人写字用墨汁，写出来的东西自然也是与乌鸦的颜色一样。卢仝说自己的作品“如老鸦”，既生动又风趣。涂鸦除了可以宣泄情感，甚至还能帮助你提高记忆力。当然，在公共场所乱写乱画除外。
Doodling may look messy, but it could in fact be a sign of an alert mind, a study suggests.
涂鸦虽然看上去乱七八糟，但是研究发现，涂鸦其实是大脑活跃的表现。
Plymouth University researchers carried out memory tests on 40 volunteers, asking them to listen to a phone call and recall names and places.
普利茅斯大学的研究人员对40名自愿者进行了记忆测试，要求他们听上一段电话，然后复述听到的人名和地名。
Doodlers performed 29% better than non-doodlers, the team found.
研究小组发现，涂鸦者的表现比没有涂鸦的人好了29%。
Experts said doodling stopped people from daydreaming, and so was good at helping people focus on mundane tasks.
专家表示，涂鸦可以防止人们走神，并帮助他们专注于平凡的琐事。
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.
《应用认知心理学》杂志的报告称，在测试中，一半的志愿者接听2分半钟的电话时需要在纸上给不同的形状涂颜色，另一半则可以随意地涂鸦。两组接听的电话信息都是枯燥乏味的。随后志愿者需要写出八个具体的人名和八个电话中提到的地名。
The doodlers on average recalled 7.5, while the non-doodlers only managed 5.8.
结果显示，涂鸦组能平均记住7.5个名字，而未涂鸦组平均只能记住5.8个名字。
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. "
研究小组负责人杰克·安德雷德说：“如果某人在从事一项无聊的事情时，比如听一段没有趣味的电话录音，人们很容易走神，导致效率低下。”
"A simple task, like doodling, may be sufficient to stop daydreaming without affecting performance on the main task."
“如果进行一些简单工作，比如随手涂鸦，就可以停止走神，从而提高手头工作的效率。”
Professor Alan Badeley, from the British Psychological Society, said: "Doodling is a relatively undemanding task so this makes sense.
英国心理学协会教授阿伦·巴德里表示，涂鸦是一种相对简单的动作，它能够保持头脑清醒。
"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. "
“开会或者通电话的时候，你可能很难集中精神以至于开小差，比如你开始想象假期的情景。如果不把你从胡思乱想中拉回来，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，涂鸦简单易行，而且让人头脑清醒，这样就能更容易地接收信息。”