The cost of saving: How photos and screenshots impair memory.
The photo impairment effect refers to worse memory for experiences that are photographed compared with those that are not. One proposed explanation for this effect is that photo-taking divides attention between the event and the actions required for photography. However, the results of the present s...
| Publicado en: | Memory & Cognition Vol. 53; no. 7; pp. 2301 - 2312 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Oct2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=189137937&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 189137937 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 0090502X MEG jtl: Memory & Cognition issn: 0090502X maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Oct2025 vid: 53 iid: 7 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 189137937 10.3758/s13421-025-01711-2 ppf: 2301 ppct: 11 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 701KB tig: atl: The cost of saving: How photos and screenshots impair memory. aug: au: Lurie, Rebecca Fabrizio, Sophia P. Westerman, Deanne L. affil: https://ror.org/008rmbt77 Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, State University of New York, PO Box 6000, 13902-6000, Binghamton, NY, USA su: Task performance Undergraduates Attention Memory Analysis of variance Scale analysis (Psychology) Statistical power analysis Repeated measures design Smartphones T-test (Statistics) Data analysis Probability theory Photography Descriptive statistics Inferential statistics Statistics Confidence intervals Visual perception sug: subj: Task performance Undergraduates Attention Memory Analysis of variance Scale analysis (Psychology) Statistical power analysis Repeated measures design Smartphones T-test (Statistics) Data analysis Probability theory Photography Descriptive statistics Inferential statistics Statistics Confidence intervals Visual perception keyword: Cognitive offloading Photographs Technology Cognitive offloading Photographs Technology ab: The photo impairment effect refers to worse memory for experiences that are photographed compared with those that are not. One proposed explanation for this effect is that photo-taking divides attention between the event and the actions required for photography. However, the results of the present study challenge this account. Specifically, we found that the magnitude of the photo impairment effect did not increase with task complexity, undermining the idea that divided attention is the primary cause. Across three experiments, participants viewed art presented on a computer or their own smartphones and either photographed or took screenshots of the images. Memory was consistently worse for images saved by any of these methods. Notably, screenshotting had particularly detrimental effects on memory, despite being the least complex saving method. Furthermore, the impairment did not vary based on whether participants used a familiar device (their own smartphone) or an unfamiliar, experimenter-provided camera. These findings suggest that divided attention alone cannot account for the photo impairment effect. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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