Griffin

Griffonage (from French griffonage ) - fluent sketches of improvisational properties ^[1] , created by a person unfocused or unconsciously when his attention is occupied by some other issues ^[2] .

Among such sketches, there are both simple drawings that have some specific meaning and form, and abstract figures. The authors are often schoolchildren or students who draw them in school notebooks, often secretly when they think or get bored during classes. Some people draw figures during long telephone conversations if there is paper and some writing materials on hand ^[3] .

On griffon drawings there are images ( cartoons ) of teachers and schoolmates drawing (often only their heads), characters of comics and cartoons invented by fictional creatures, simple landscapes and their details, various geometric shapes, patterns, textures and so on ^[4] .

Such drawings have been known since ancient times ^[5] . The English name “doodle” has been known since the 17th century and originally meant “simpleton” or “fool”; its etymology can be associated with the German words “Dudeltopf” and “Dudeldop” meaning a night cap ^[6] . In Russian, there is the word “scribble”, which means fuzzy letters. Ushakov’s dictionary states that it comes from the Turkic words “kara” - “black” and “kol” - “hand”, “handwriting”. In the Dahl dictionary, the word "karakul" is used in the meaning of "a crooked, kinky tree" ^[7] .

Among the famous writers who loved to draw their manuscripts in the margins were Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin , Sylvia Platt , and Rabindranath Tagore . Drawings of poets and writers are of great interest to researchers of their work, sometimes they give a clue to the thoughts that soared in the head of the author when creating the work ^[8] . In the United States published a collection of stamp drawings of American presidents ^[9] .

Griffing is the subject of several scientific studies in the field of cognitive psychology ^{[10] [11]} ; Currently, these studies focus on the study of the conscious and subconscious activity of the painter and the effect of improvisational drawing on improving memory ^[12] ; in one of the articles, the connection of the phenomenon with subconscious dreams or human fears is analyzed ^[13] . Psychologist Jackie Armand from Plymouth University conducted an experiment, the purpose of which was to establish a connection between the creation of drawings and the memorization of the students listening to a lecture; according to the results of the experiment, students who drew while listening to a lecture remembered 29% more material than they did not draw ^[14] .