A collective belief of these times is that mobiles are devices that make us lazy, insensitive and even foolish, by having them present for much of our day.
A team of scientists challenged this popular belief, showing through a study that smartphones are actually an ally of our brains, helping to improve our memory.
Positive influence of smartphone use on human memory
According to figures from the Ibero-American Telecommunications Organization, in the world there are more cell phones than people. This has been talked about for several years now, almost inevitably leading to the debate about whether these devices are a negative influence on our lives, both individually and in society.
At a cognitive level, contrary to popular belief about its supposed negative impact on our minds and memory, researchers at University College London discovered that the use of digital devices, such as smartphones, can improve our memory performance.
in this new study, in which 158 volunteers aged between 18 and 71 participated, showed that the absence of prejudices about the mind is absolute. To participate, the volunteers had to perform, as expected, a task with their mobile. They were shown up to 12 numbered circles on the screen, which they had to remember to drag to the left or to the right, depending on the value indicated on these circles. By properly combining the presented values, the team releases a series of reminders that remained locked
Following this simple digital memory test, each person in this study had to perform this task 16 times and were able to use their digital devices. On this exercise, the scientists tabulated the results. Their memory was recorded to improve with the high values by 18%, while the low value circles represented an improvement of up to 27%.
Despite the fact that this experiment was created almost like a game, the scientists behind this initiative claim that these devices help us to remember the information that we store in them, but at the same time, this same action also helps us to remember things that were not in those notes.
Dr. Sam Gilbert, lead author of the study, commented: “The results show that external memory tools work. Far from causing ‘digital dementia’, using an external memory device can even improve our memory for information that we never save. But we must be careful to back up the most important information.”
Although in advance, a regular use of these devices does not imply harm, relying totally on these solutions could be detrimental to memory, generating dependency. In this situation, if the device used fails, its user could see part of their memory skills compromised, which require these aids to perform as expected. The researchers emphasize the care that must be taken with how we use these devices to store critical information.
Although the observation made through this study may be surprisingly positive for some people, it is important to be aware of the importance of avoiding extreme dependence on the mobile, due to the risks that it entails, even more so knowing that sooner or later these devices may fail or decompose.
