Memory and Technology Flashcards
What Types of Technology Can We Consider?
● GPS
● Social Media
● Photos
GPS and Memory
What happens if I use a GPS? Will my brain shrink? Before we answer that question, let me remind you
of some work in London **taxi drivers. Taxi drivers show **a larger hippocampus than bus drivers. Correlated with year of experience . What does this tell us?(before gps was a thing)
its a correletion study! not causation
Turning to GPS, greater lifetime GPS use was associated with poorer spatial navigation and memory in the lab . What does this finding suggest?
GPS use impairs cognition or People with poorer cognition use GPS more
Social Media
- Daily diary study: Days when participants reported higher use of social media, they also
reported more memory failures (of various types) - In live university classes, students who engaged in greater media multitasking often did
more poorly on quizzes and tests
● Other work suggests more chronic media multitasking is associated with poorer memory performance (even under conditions where there is no media use)
- all these studies are correlational
Reviewing Photos
● Reviewing photos from events increases memory for those events
● But memory for non-reviewed events that occurred around that time can be reduced —
retrieval induced forgetting (important !)
HippoCamera
- Events that were replayed with HippoCamera were remembered better (47% increase). w
- Lasted for over 3 months(lon lasting)
- Events that were replayed with HippoCamera evoked more positive emotions during their recall
- HippoCamera replay led to sharpened hippocampal activity (reduced overlap between memories)
Taking Photos
● Mixed evidence for effects of photo use on memory. Some studies suggest photo taking impairs later memory
● Effect shown even if participants are told photos are deleted, suggesting it is not due to cognitive offloading, that is, relying on external devices instead of one’s own cognition
● Could be due to distraction of photo taking, reducing encoding
But…other studies show benefits of photo taking if participant is allowed to choose what they photograph, zoom in, etc
mixed!
Sharing Photos
● Sharing memories on social media can enhance memory for that content
● However, it is possible that the act of sharing some events harms our memory for non- shared and related events—retrieval induced forgetting
- Something to consider: What we share is not random (more important, emotional); could this be a confound?—effects seem to hold even when these factors are
controlled for!
● Something else to consider: you review all the photos to select that best one (so you are rehearsing ;creating more cues, you also re-review when you get a notification
Technology as Cognitive Augmenting
Cognitive augmenting refers to the use of external sources to extend the biological capabilities of memory (rather than to replace it)
Photo Reviewing as Emotion Regulation?
● “How might digital externalizations of memories affect emotion regulation? Autobiographical memories help direct future action, form social bonds, and maintain a sense of self. Emerging
research suggests that revisiting autobiographical memories also helps people to regulate emotions – but this is relatively unexplored in the digital realm”
● “How might subtle photo edits (e.g., improving one’s appearance) affect one’s self-worth and how one remembers the affective tone of an event? “
Domain General Versus Domain Specific
● As highlighted by Dan Schacter, people are investigating the effects of technology on so called
“domain general” and “domain specific” functions
○ A “domain general” effect is when technology influences cognition in general
- “domain specific” effect is when technology influences cognition on the technology relevant task
○ To date, there is evidence in support of domain specific and domain general effects, BUT there is less evidence in support of domain general effects
○ But more work is needed
