The cost of saving: How photos and screenshots impair memory

The photo impairment effect refers to worse memory for experiences that are photographed compared with those that are not. One proposed explanation for this effect is that photo-taking divides attention between the event and the actions required for photography. However, the results of the present study challenge this account. Specifically, we found that the magnitude of the photo impairment effect did not increase with task complexity, undermining the idea that divided attention is the primary cause. Across three experiments, participants viewed art presented on a computer or their own smartphones and either photographed or took screenshots of the images. Memory was consistently worse for images saved by any of these methods. Notably, screenshotting had particularly detrimental effects on memory, despite being the least complex saving method. Furthermore, the impairment did not vary based on whether participants used a familiar device (their own smartphone) or an unfamiliar, experimenter-provided camera. These findings suggest that divided attention alone cannot account for the photo impairment effect.