Summary
Camera use may pull attention from the scene being recorded. Research on photographed artworks shows why observing, choosing shots carefully, and revisiting organized images can matter.
At a glance
Taking photos can impair memory when operating the camera shifts attention away from the experience. Experiments described here found that people who only observed artworks generally remembered details more accurately than those who photographed them. Focused, selective photography may reduce the effect, while organized photos can still support later recall when revisited.
As soon as the tourists arrive at a new attraction, an unusual press conference—well, not really—gets underway.
The tourists around you pull out their phones and start hunting for the right angle.
Flashes and raised hands come together to form a distinctive tableau.
Are you one of the people in that picture?
Admittedly, taking photos can help us preserve wonderful memories.
Beautiful shots can also make our social media posts more appealing.
But have you ever wondered whether—
because you took photos, you might actually remember less of the beauty you experienced?
How Taking Photos Can Make You Forget
Has this ever happened to you? You return from a long day of sightseeing with a huge stack of photos and a polished nine-photo social media post. But as soon as a friend asks what scenery was worth seeing, your mind goes blank, and you can barely remember what many of the places you visited actually looked like. This phenomenon is known as the photo-taking-impairment effect [1].
Linda Henkel, a psychology professor at Fairfield University in the United States, demonstrated this phenomenon experimentally. She recruited participants and led them through a museum, asking them to photograph some artworks while simply observing others without taking pictures. They were also told that they would later be questioned about the artworks.
The results showed that, when recalling information about the artworks the next day, participants were significantly less accurate about the details of works they had photographed than about those they had only observed.
In other words, relying on technology to remember—such as depending on a camera to record an event instead of fully engaging with it oneself—may have a negative effect on memory.
Does Taking More Photos Make You Forget More?
Julia S. Soares, an assistant professor in Mississippi State University's Department of Psychology, and her team designed a series of experiments to investigate the adverse effects that taking multiple photos might have on memory [2].
They divided participants into three groups: an observation group, a one-photo group, and a five-photo group. The participants were then shown 30 paintings with accompanying descriptions on a computer, with each painting displayed for 20 seconds.
Participants in the observation group simply looked at the paintings. Those in the one-photo group were instructed to take one phone photo of each painting during its 20-second display and then place the phone back on the table. Those in the five-photo group had to take five phone photos of each painting within the same 20 seconds before putting the phone down.
After viewing the paintings, participants rested for five minutes and then answered 60 questions about them. These included multiple-choice questions testing visual details—for example, they were asked what kind of moon appeared in R. C. Gorman's Moon River, for which the answer was a crescent.
The observation group achieved the highest accuracy on the questions, followed by the one-photo group and then the five-photo group.
Soares immediately followed this with another study using the same three groups: observation, one photo, and five photos. The crucial difference was that participants in the five-photo group now had to take five distinct pictures, whereas the earlier study had not required the images to differ.
The participants then observed or photographed the paintings as instructed before answering the questions. The observation group scored significantly higher than both photography groups, but there was no difference in accuracy between those who took one photo and those who took five.
These findings also suggest that the photo-taking-impairment effect is fairly robust: even requiring participants to photograph an object from different angles did not reduce photography's negative effect on memory.
Why Does the Photo-Taking-Impairment Effect Occur?
There are currently two main explanations for the photo-taking-impairment effect:
1. Cognitive Offloading
When you see a table printed at an angle, you may tilt your head to read it. When you want to remind yourself to take a COVID test at ten the next morning, you might set an alarm on your phone. These are examples of cognitive offloading: using a physical action to change a task's information-processing demands and thereby reduce the cognitive effort it requires [3].
Applied to photography, the idea is that photographers believe the camera has preserved the subject for them, reducing the need to form an internal memory of it.
Careful readers may notice, however, that the research on taking multiple photos has already refuted this explanation. Cognitive offloading would suggest that several photos should capture more information than a single photo, yet participants who took five different pictures performed no differently on the memory test from those who took only one.
2. Attentional Disengagement
Attentional disengagement is the process of selectively shifting the focus of attention from one place to another.
Choosing a camera angle and adjusting the frame require extra time and attention to capture the best overall shot. This directs people's attention toward how to photograph the subject well rather than toward the information contained in the subject itself [4].
Henkel also found that when participants were asked to photograph a specific detail—such as a person's hand in a painting—rather than the entire object, their accuracy on questions about that detail matched that of participants who had only observed it. This finding also suggests that focused attention may eliminate the photo-taking-impairment effect.
How Can Photography Become More Helpful?
1. Let Someone Else Take the Photos
After conducting extensive research on the photo-taking-impairment effect, Soares concluded that having someone else take the pictures is key: let a friend or family member handle the photography during especially important events so that you can immerse yourself fully in the experience.
Imagine visiting Huangshan with a friend. You could divide the roles: you concentrate on observing and enjoying the scenery while your friend records it on a phone. Wouldn't that be ideal?
2. Take Photos Selectively
When people spend time examining what they want to photograph and zoom in on the particular elements they hope to remember, the memory becomes more deeply embedded in the subconscious [5]. Deciding deliberately what to photograph may therefore reduce the adverse effect on memory and even make the experience more enjoyable.
“When we search our field of view to decide what to capture in a photograph, we are more likely to commit those details to memory.” —Linda Henkel, who discovered the photo-taking-impairment effect
3. Revisit Your Photos Regularly
Photographs can be effective tools for preserving memories, helping us recall certain moments more accurately and have more positive experiences.
In practice, however, many of us rarely take the time to look through our photos. Making them easy to access and keeping them organized can encourage you to revisit them more often and preserve your memories more effectively.
After all of this, consider one more question:
When you photograph your teacher's presentation slides in class, do you really remember the material any better? (Insert knowing dog-face meme here.)
Frequently asked questions
What is the photo-taking-impairment effect?
It is the finding that people may remember fewer details about something they photographed than something they simply observed.
Does taking five photos improve memory compared with taking one?
Not in the experiments described. In the second study, the observation group performed better than both photography groups, while people taking five distinct photos were no more accurate than those taking one.
Can focused photography avoid the memory impairment?
It may help for the attended feature. When participants photographed a specific detail in a painting, their accuracy about that detail matched the accuracy of participants who only observed it.
How can photography become more helpful for memory?
The source suggests letting someone else photograph especially important events, choosing subjects selectively with focused attention, and organizing photos so they are easy to revisit.
