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Computer memory helps human

22.12.2014

To better remember something new, try offloading your memory by feeding old information from your brain to the computer.

By storing information on a computer hard drive or on a "flash drive", we better remember the next piece of information - this is the conclusion reached in their work by Benjamin C. Storm and Sean M. Stone from the University of California at Santa Cruz (USA).

Twenty students participated in the experiments of psychologists, who had to study two PDF files in order to remember as much as possible of what was written in them. Each file had a list of nouns, and the first list was closed immediately after reading. At the same time, some were told to simply close it, while others were told to save it to a certain place on the computer. The second file was read for the same amount of time as the first, but after the experiment participants had to immediately say how many words from it they remembered. And only then they were checked about the first list - the one that they closed after reading and moved on to the second.

It turned out that most of the words from the second list were remembered if the first one was not just closed, but specially saved on the hard drive. That is, in a person’s memory, it seemed as if more space was freed up for a new portion of words, because he saved the previous ones on an “external medium”. The results were confirmed in another similar experiment with twice as many volunteers. However, this time there were some nuances. So, if the students were told that the saved list is not so important, that, of course, it needs to be saved, but if it suddenly becomes unavailable, then it’s okay, then in this case they memorized the second list without any advantages, as if the first list they just closed without saving.

In previous works on the interaction between computer memory and living memory, it was said that when we store information in a computer, it becomes more difficult for us to remember it ourselves. Long-term neural memory with old information becomes inaccessible - because we know that we "copied" them to the hard drive. However, as it turns out, there is also a positive side here: at the same time, we free up cognitive and psychological resources for something new.

Although psychologists have used only computer memory in experiments, it is possible that the same effect occurs if we write something down on a piece of paper. However, whether this is true or not, whether the type of "external carrier" plays any role can be clarified only after additional experiments - as well as the neural mechanism underlying the described phenomenon.

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