How the habit of taking screenshots affects memory - a study

A study has shown that the habit of saving information through screenshots can impair memory. Participants remembered images they saved worse than those they simply viewed. The effect is explained by cognitive offloading: the phone begins to serve as external memory, reducing the need to remember information.

A study conducted through a series of experiments using smartphones found that the habit of taking screenshots can negatively affect memory. Participants were shown images: some they only needed to view, others they had to save by taking a screenshot. The results showed a recurring pattern: participants remembered images they had screenshotted worse than those they simply looked at. Moreover, people could not always accurately recall which images they had previously saved. One possible explanation is cognitive offloading. When a person understands that the needed information is already on their smartphone and can be quickly accessed if necessary, the need to thoroughly remember what was seen decreases. Essentially, the phone begins to serve as external memory. The person saves not so much the information itself in their head, but the ability to return to it in the future. The authors of the experiments also tested whether this method of storing information could free up working memory resources and allow for more efficient performance of subsequent tasks. However, no consistent advantage was found. The results do not mean that screenshots should be abandoned—they remain a convenient tool, especially if the user organizes saved materials and actually returns to them later.