Exploring the consequences of cognitive offloading: Levels of processing and subjective experiences of retrieval

Cognitive offloading can boost the performance of memory-based tasks while simultaneously impairing memory for offloaded information. Past research suggests that this impairment may occur because people reduce the use of encoding strategies that support memory when expecting to rely on an offloaded store at test. To further elucidate the memorial costs of cognitive offloading, we investigated the effects of store expectancy on both encoding and retrieval processes. In Experiments 1, 2, and 3, we investigated how offloaded store expectancy affects levels of processing at encoding by comparing free recall performance in deep and shallow-processing conditions to performance in cognitive offloading conditions where people did or did not expect to lose access to offloaded notes at test. Across these experiments, performance in the unexpected loss of access offloading conditions was poorer than performance in the shallow encoding conditions. In Experiment 4, we investigated how access to offloaded notes and store expectancy affects subjective retrieval experiences by asking participants to make remember/know judgments under offloading conditions where they did or did not expect to have access to their offloaded stores. Participants were also asked to report what they remembered specifically about the recalled word (remember judgments) or how confident they were (know judgments). Participants made fewer remember judgments when they had access to offloaded notes at test than when they did not. We suggest that cognitive offloading is a dynamic tool that can simultaneously serve external storage and encoding functions, with the emphasis on each function shifting depending on offloaded store expectancy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).