Because summer is vacation time, many of us will capture photos of the beaches, mountains, or sites we'll visit. Does taking photos of these scenes improve our memories for our vacation experiences? It might depend on the type of memory we're talking about.
Here's a description of a study published in Psychological Science in which the researchers tested whether taking photos improves memory.
In one experiment, the researchers had 294 participants tour a real-life museum exhibit of Etruscan artifacts. The participants stashed their belongings before starting the tour but some were allowed to keep a camera on them. Those with a camera could photograph anything they wanted in the exhibit and were told to take at least 10 photos. As the participants toured the exhibit, they listened to an accompanying audio guide.
At the end of the tour, they answered multiple-choice questions asking them to identify objects they had seen or complete factual statements from the audio guide.
The results showed that those who took photos visually recognized more of the objects compared with those who didn’t have a camera. But they also remembered less auditory information than their camera-less peers.
a) Based only on this description, the study seems to have been a 2×2 factorial design. One of the independent variables is "type of memory" What are its 2 levels? What is the other independent variable and its levels?
b) For each IV, indicate whether it is independent groups or within groups.
c) Sketch a little graph of the study's findings.
The researchers conducted another study with the same variables, using a different method:
To test their hypotheses in a more controlled environment, the researchers designed a virtual art-gallery tour. Participants navigated through the gallery on screen as they would in real life and some were able to take pictures of what they saw on screen by clicking an on-screen button.
Again, participants who were able to take pictures were better at recognizing what they saw and worse at remembering what they heard, compared to those who couldn’t take pictures.
d) Identify this study's independent and dependent variables. Sketch a graph of the results.
e) If you've studied Chapter 14, consider this: Is this study a direct replication, conceptual replication, or replication-plus-extension?
It's important to note that a few years ago, another study in the same journal reached the conclusion that taking photos actually impairs memory. How can we reconcile these two findings? The more recent study's authors suspect it has something to do with choosing to take the photos:
Previous research has suggested that being able to take photographs or consult the Internet may allow us to outsource our memory, freeing up cognitive resources but potentially impairing our ability to remember. Barasch, Diehl, Silverman, and Zauberman hypothesized that this offloading effect may hold for factual information, but might not apply when it comes to the experiences we deliberately choose to photograph.
“People take photos specifically to remember these experiences, whether it’s a fun dinner with friends, a sightseeing tour, or something else,” they argue.