Abstract
In this chapter we begin reporting the results 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). After first describing data cleaning and scoring, we report the descriptive statistics for questions about attitudes and beliefs regarding internal memory, external memory, and their interplay. The overall pattern, based on participants’ self-reports, is that most think external memory enhances their everyday functioning, but they also think they would do fine without it, and they do not feel uneasy about their reliance on it. External memory is seen as augmenting human capability, not supplanting it. Furthermore, participants generally put considerable value in their external memories.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Barasch, A., Diehl, K., Silverman, J., & Zauberman, G. (2017). Photographic memory: The effects of volitional photo taking on memory for visual and auditory aspects of an experience. Psychological Science, 28(8), 1056–1066. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617694868
Barnier, A. J. (2010). Memories, memory studies, and my iPhone: Editorial. Memory Studies, 3(4), 293–297.
Beaudoin, M., & Desrichard, O. (2011). Are memory self-efficacy and memory performance related? A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 137(2), 211–241. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022106
Belk, R. W. (2013). Extended self in a digital world. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(3), 477–500.
Diehl, K., Zauberman, G., & Barasch, A. (2016). How taking photos increases enjoyment of experiences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(2), 119–140.
Fox, S., & Rainie, L. (2014, February). The Web at 25 in the U.S. Retrieved from Pew Research Center website: http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/02/25/the-web-at-25-in-the-u-s
Henkel, L. A. (2014). Point-and-shoot memories: The influence of taking photos on memory for a museum tour. Psychological Science, 25(2), 396–402.
Henkel, L. A., Nash, R. A., & Paton, J. A. (in press). “Say cheese!”: How taking and viewing photos shapes what people remember. To appear in S. M. Lane, P. Atchley, & D. Cash (Eds.), The attention economy: How information technology changes how we think, feel and behave. APA.
Henkel, L. A., Parisi, K., & Weber, C. N. (2016). The museum as psychology lab: Research on photography and memory in museums. In T. Stylianou-Lambert (Ed.), Museums and visitor photography: Refining the visitor experience (pp. 153–183). Cambridge, MA: MusuemsEtc.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York, NY: Macmillan.
Kaspersky Lab. (2015). The rise and impact of digital amnesia: Why we need to protect what we no longer remember. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20160625064725/https://kasperskycontenthub.com/usa/files/2015/06/Digital-Amnesia-Report.pdf
Kaspersky Lab. (2016). From digital amnesia to the augmented mind. Retrieved from https://media.kaspersky.com/pdf/Kaspersky-Digital-Amnesia-Evolution-report-17-08-16.pdf
Magnussen, S., Andersson, J., Cornoldi, C., De Beni, R., Endestad, T., Goodman, G. S., … Zimmer, H. (2006). What people believe about memory. Memory, 14(5), 595–613.
Mols, I., Broekhuijsen, M., van den Hoven, E., Markopoulos, P., & Eggen, B. (2015, December). Do we ruin the moment? Exploring the design of novel capturing technologies. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Australian Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction (pp. 653–661). ACM.
Niforatos, E., Cinel, C., Mack, C. C., Langheinrich, M., & Ward, G. (2017). Can less be more?: Contrasting limited, unlimited, and automatic picture capture for augmenting memory recall. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 1(2), 21.
Purcell, K., & Rainie, L. (2014, December). Americans feel better informed thanks to the Internet. Retrieved from Pew Research Center website: http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/12/08/better-informed/
Silva, A. R., Pinho, M. S., Macedo, L., & Moulin, C. J. A. (2018). A critical review of the effects of wearable cameras on memory. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 28(1), 117–141.
Simons, D. J., & Chabris, C. F. (2012). Common (mis)beliefs about memory: A replication and comparison of telephone and Mechanical Turk survey methods. PLoS One, 7(12), e51876. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051876
Soares, J. S., & Storm, B. C. (2018). Forget in a flash: A further investigation of the photo-taking-impairment effect. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 7(1), 154–160.
Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. Science, 333(6043), 776–778.
Ward, A. F. (2013). One with the Cloud: Why people mistake the Internet’s knowledge for their own (Doctoral dissertation). Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Retrieved from http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11004901
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Finley, J.R., Naaz, F., Goh, F.W. (2018). Results: Attitudes and Beliefs About Internal and External Memory. In: Memory and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99169-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99169-6_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-99168-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-99169-6
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)