Does taking multiple photos lead to a photo-taking-impairment effect?

Abstract

The photo-taking-impairment effect is observed when photographed information is less likely to be remembered than nonphotographed information. Three experiments examined whether this effect persists when multiple photos are taken. Experiment 1 used a within-subjects laboratory-based design in which participants viewed images of paintings and were instructed to photograph them once, five times, or not at all. Participants' memory was measured using a visual detail test, and the photo-taking-impairment effect was observed when participants took multiple photos. Experiment 2 examined the photo-taking-impairment effect using a between-subjects design. Participants either photographed all of the paintings they saw once, five times, or not at all, before being tested on their memory for the paintings. The photo-taking-impairment effect was observed in both photo-taking conditions relative to the no photo baseline. Experiment 3 replicated this pattern of results even when participants who took multiple photos were instructed to take five unique photos. These findings indicate that the photo-taking-impairment effect is robust, occurring even when multiple photos are taken, and after nonselective photo-taking.

Keywords: Cognitive offloading; Distributed cognition; Extended memory; Photo-taking-impairment effect.

Fig. 1

Mean Memory Performance Across Conditions in Experiments 1–3. Note. Performance on a multiple-choice visual detail memory test across Experiments 1–3. Since four answer options were available for each test question, chance performance was 25%. The Observe condition consisted of questions about paintings that were only observed, while the 1-Photo and 5-Photos conditions consisted of questions about paintings photographed once or five times, respectively. Error bars indicate standard error of the mean.