Storing information in-the-world: Metacognition and cognitive offloading in a short-term memory task.
We often store to-be-remembered information externally (e.g., written down on a piece of paper) rather than internally. In the present investigation, we examine factors that influence the decision to store information in-the-world versus in-the-head using a variant of a traditional short term memory task. In Experiments 1a and 1b participants were presented with to-be-remembered items and either had to rely solely on internal memory or had the option to write down the presented information. In Experiments 2a and 2b participants were presented with the same stimuli but made metacognitive judgments about their predicted performance and effort expenditure. The spontaneous use of external storage was related both to the number of items to be remembered and an individual's actual and perceived short-term-memory capacity. Interestingly, individuals often used external storage despite its use affording no observable benefit. Implications for understanding how individuals integrate external resources in pursuing cognitive goals are discussed.
['Risko|Evan F|EF|', 'Dunn|Timothy L|TL|']
D000328:Adult D001307:Auditory Perception D002755:Choice Behavior D006801:Humans D007206:Individuality D008570:Memory, Short-Term D000067489:Metacognition D011597:Psychomotor Performance D055815:Young Adult
Metacognition Memory Distributed cognition Embodied embedded cognition