Can Smartphones Help In Improving Memory Skills? Here's What Research Shows

New research has revealed that gadgets like smartphones can help improve people's memory skills. What's your take on this?

New research discovers that digital devices like smartphones can aid people in enhancing memory skills rather than being forgetful or lazy. The Journal of Experimental Psychology results showed that digital devices allow people to store and remember important information. This, in favour, releases their memory to remember other, less important things.

Researcher Sam Gilbert On Memory Capacity

"We desired to look out how keeping data in a digital machine might influence memory capability," said Sam Gilbert, a researcher from University College London. But rather, he stated, "It was great, but we also comprehended that the device also enriched individuals' memory for unsaved details."

Digital Dementia

Neuroscientists have earlier voiced apprehension that technology overuse can lead to digital dementia and mental impairment. However, the findings suggest that using a digital device as an external memory helps people remember information saved on the machine but also helps them remember unsaved details.

How Was The Study Conducted?

• For the analysis, the experimenters created a remembering job to be executed on a touchscreen digital computer or tablet. The test was performed by one hundred fifty-eight volunteers aged eighteen to seventy-one.
• Participants were shown twelve numbered circles on the screen and had to remember to draw. Their income was selected at the end of the experimentation by removing the number of circles they placed to the right.
• The participants did this task sixteen times. They had to utilise their memory to recall half the problems and were permitted to set reminders on a digital instrument for the next half.
• The results found that participants used digital devices to store the details of high-value circles; when they did, their memory for those circles improved by eighteen per cent.
• Their memory for the low-value circles improved by twenty-seven per cent, even among those who had never set a reminder for the low-value circles. However, the effects also revealed a possible price of utilising reminders.