Digital amnesia: The aftermath of a screenshot

The photo-taking impairment effect is the finding that memory is worse for photographed information compared with information that is merely viewed. Recently, this effect has been extended to smartphone screenshots, suggesting that the effect is related to digital capture more generally. One potential explanation for the impairment is based on the idea of cognitive offloading, which refers to a reliance on an external memory store to save information. Although previous evidence suggests that a conscious offloading strategy may not always be used, it is possible that associations between screenshots and offloading may precipitate an automatic, unconscious form of offloading. Such an account suggests that the costs associated with digital capture may be offset by benefits on other tasks due to redirected cognitive resources. Accordingly, the current study explored whether taking screenshots offers memory benefits as compared with simply viewing pieces of art. Seven preregistered experiments found that screenshotting led to pronounced memory costs, with no consistent benefits across four measures. Participants did not display improved source memory, improved recognition memory for subsequently presented items, or enhanced performance on a subsequent cognitive task compared with viewing alone. We found evidence of a modest boost in recall for a second block of art, but only under very specific experimental methods and when the memory test was scored very leniently. Overall, these findings suggest that screenshotting imposes considerable memory costs without offering compensatory benefits.