How technology affects your memory and changes your brain | Popular Science
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Cognitive offloading isn't new, but technology has made it easier than ever before.
Image: Oscar Wong / Getty Images
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When was the last time you recalled a looming dentist appointment off the top of your head? Or memorized a phone number that wasn’t also the lyrics to an interminable commercial jingle? If the answer escapes you, it’s likely that you use notes apps, phone cameras, voice memos, and schedulers to outsource the documentation of your memories and commitments.
Psychologists call it cognitive offloading, and it’s been a real boon to the convenient, efficient, and effective cataloging of the ever-swelling amount of information we consume daily.
“Generally, this type of offloading does enhance our performance,” says Julia Soares, Ph.D, assistant professor of psychology at New Mexico State University.
But not without taking a cut. Recent research is providing greater insights into the effects of transferring cognitive function to external media, and there’s evidence they’re not all beneficial.
Is all of this snapping, recording, logging, and storing a net gain for us mentally, or are we handing over too much brainpower to the machines? Well, after recording expert interviews via Zoom, transcribing them with AI, and substantiating it all online, we have answers!
What Is cognitive offloading?
“Cognitive offloading is when we use external devices—sources other than our brain, really—to complete a cognitive task,” Soares says. She notes this can include something as mundane as counting on your fingers, but when we document information, “we’re relying on the prosthetic memory or source available to take some of the responsibility of remembering on our behalf.”
To some extent, this phenomenon has existed as long as cave drawings. But technology is rapidly replacing a lot of the thinking we’ve done since human inception, with different devices and programs shouldering (braining?) different shares of the load.
Of particular focus for researchers studying the effects of digital documentation are the areas of prospective memory, working memory, and factual recall. It may be helpful to think of them as the ghosts of cognition’s past, present, and future. (Unless you’re just going to copy and paste this information somewhere, in which case don’t worry about thinking of them at all.)
Prospective memory regards information about a future point in time. For instance, remembering an upcoming concert or scheduled business meeting.
Working memory functions like computer RAM, temporarily holding new and existing information for present use, as with taking notes or following directions.
Factual recall concerns information you already know and must retrieve, as if from a human hard drive. You use this when playing trivia or remembering where to turn next while driving.
Cognitive offloading subcontracts much of these functions to technology, pinging us with reminders, converting spoken instructions to text, and storing huge, searchable volumes of data.
Technology Examples Cognitive Function SchedulerGoogle/Apple CalendarProspective memoryNote takerVoice Memo, Otter.aiWorking memorySearch engines/chat botsGoogle, ChatGPTFactual recall
How does cognitive offloading affect your brain?
When you document, or offload, important information (like photographing where you parked, or adding a number to your phone), your brain’s traffic controller reroutes processing in two ways:
Flush the data. This part of the process signals your brain to jettison the offloaded information from short-term storage, recognizing that a duplicate copy safely exists elsewhere.
Reassign bandwidth. With the high-value information safely offloaded, your brain reallocates the newly freed-up cognitive capacity for additional data and/or functions.
At its best, cognitive offloading helps lighten your mental workload. By farming out data storage to technology, you alter brain function from resource-intensive information maintenance to an open, more flexible state, freeing up limited working memory for other business.
Before smartphones, we had to find other ways to remember things. Image: Getty Images Olga Yastremska, New Africa, Africa Studio
Benefits of cognitive offloading
The benefits of cognitive offloading are as vast and varied as they are obvious.
1. Conserves cognitive effort
The brain burns...