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Introduction and Method

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Memory and Technology

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Abstract

In this chapter we introduce the topic of internal memory versus external memory. Internal memory is information stored in one’s brain, and external memory is information stored outside of one’s brain (either socially or technologically). Humans have a long history of using external memory, and we interact extensively with it in our everyday lives. However, research on this topic has been limited and fragmentary. Here we describe the method of our comprehensive survey study on the interplay of internal and external memory in everyday life, and how that is changing in the early twenty-first century (N = 476 Mechanical Turk participants). The survey included quantitative and qualitative questions about attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and experiences.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Mullin, Herrmann, and Searleman (1993): “although the use of external aids is ubiquitous, memory research and theory does not consider how external aids affect memory.” Wegner (1987, p. 187): “It is surprising, actually, that the psychological study of memory has dwelt so little upon the extraordinary human tendency to record items in external storage media.”

  2. 2.

    An exception is the use of retrieval cues in laboratory studies of memory retrieval processes (Roediger & Guynn, 1996).

  3. 3.

    Other terms for what we are calling internal memory include organic memory or O-memory (Clowes, 2013) and biological memory or bio-memory (Bell, Gemmell, & Gates, 2009). Other terms for what we are calling high-tech external memory include electronic memory or E-memory (Clowes, 2013) and digital memory. Other terms for external memory in general include artificial memory, distributed memory (which includes both internal and external components), material memory, extended memory , outboard memory, external symbolic storage, and exosomatic memory. In computer science, the term “external memory” refers to computer storage such as hard drives, which are external to a computer’s main memory (RAM).

  4. 4.

    For a discussion of definitions of information, see Case & Given (2016, pp. 55–78). For our purposes, settling on a single precise definition of information is unnecessary.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral Sciences, Fontbonne University, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Jason R. Finley

  2. Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA

    Farah Naaz

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Francine W. Goh

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  1. Jason R. Finley
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  2. Farah Naaz
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  3. Francine W. Goh
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Finley, J.R., Naaz, F., Goh, F.W. (2018). Introduction and Method. In: Memory and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99169-6_1

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