Lecture 12 Flashcards
When thinking about how technology can help and harm our memory, 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 (Maguire et al., 2000). What does this tell us?
we talked about the work in London taxi drivers, they have bigger posterior hippocampus and the size of the hippocampus was correlated with years of experience. This is still correlational but it is getting us more at the causality. We might say that this is evidence that there is some plasticity.
Turning to GPS, greater lifetime GPS use was associated with poorer spatial navigation and memory in the lab (Dahmani and Bohbot, 2020). What does this finding suggest?
Either:
GPS use impairs cognition OR people with poorer cognition use GPS more
(though GPS use was not correlated with self-reported sense of direction)
with the idea that the brain is plastic and can change as a result of different experiences. Greater lifetime GPS use is associated with poorer spatial navigation memory is in the lab. This is still correlation.
you might say that people with naturally less solid or percieved poorer abilities, may be more likely to use GPS. We have to be very careful when we are looking at correlations.
WATCH VIDEO
we would need to assign a group of individuals through random assignment. Episodic and spatial memory are both reliant on the hippocampus.
Social Media and Memory
Daily diary study: Days when participants reported higher use of social media, they also reported more memory failures (of various types) (Sharifian and Zahodne, 2020)
a daily diary approach is where you have people record on their experiences daily, maybe every other day, sometimes it is experiencing sampling where you ping them on their phone etc. These data are correlational so there are still lots of ways we can interpret these data.
In live university classes, students who engaged in greater media multitasking often did more poorly on quizzes and tests (Wammes et al, 2019)
Other work suggests more chronic media multitasking is associated with poorer
memory performance (even under conditions where there is no media use) (Uncapher et al., 2016)
Keep in mind, many of these data are correlational
one thing we want to keep in mind is that the media multitasking might be affecting your ability to encode whats around you.
Does reviewing photos increase or decrease memory for those events? Example?
● 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
(you might be shining a spotlight on that dinner but if you didn’t take a picture you might be supressing your memory for that event. )
reviewing photos from events increases our memories for events.
there might be unintended consequences. Our memory for events that occurred around that time can actually be reduced.
when people think back to their wedding they often only remember the pictures and nothing else.
WATCH VIDEO ON HIPPOCAMERA
Does Hippocamera work?
Events that were replayed with HippoCamera were remembered better (47% increase) (will not be tested on that number just remember that there was a large increase )
* Lasted for over 3 months
* Events that were replayed with HippoCamera evoked more positive emotions (boost positivity associated with those memories.)
during their recall
* HippoCamera replay led to sharpened hippocampal activity (reduced overlap
between memories)
* What do you think of HippoCamera?
this reduced the overlap in activity between memories. When you analyze brain patterns, the patterns associated with individual memory tend to be more distinct with hippocamera
What are the effects of taking photos on memory?
Mixed evidence for effects of photo use on memory. Some studies suggest photo taking impairs later memory
some studies suggest taking pictures harms your memories for those events.
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
this is true even if you delete the photos. This is because of cognitive offloading. I don’t have to remember this event because I’ve offloaded this to this external device. This is maybe not true thought. Could be that you’re distracted when taking photos. Maybe there is a beautiful scene.
if a participant is free to decide when they are taking the photo, it can be better.
What are the memory effects of shating 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; you also re-review when you get a notification
Can you use technology as cognitive augmenting?
● Cognitive augmenting refers to the use of external sources to extend the biological capabilities of memory (rather than to supplant it)
cognitive augmenting this is really relevant for older adults because some technologies can be really helpful. This really comes up with prospective memory.
What do we know about 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? “
this lecture covered most of what was in the paper. Use the reading to compliment what you learned about in the paper. This slide is unanswered questions.
What is the difference between domain general and 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 and a “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
so you use your GPS and you don’t remember that route. Domain specific. The use of GPS in its own right is harming your cognition. Domain general.
