Does expecting external memory support cost recognition memory?

Abstract

We often use tools and aids to help us achieve our cognitive goals - that is, we often offload to external supports. One such variety of offloading is the use of external memory stores (e.g., phones, computers, notebooks, calendars) to support memory. Recent work aimed at better understanding the consequences of offloading memory on aspects of unaided memory have revealed a clear cost to unaided memory performance when an external memory store is unexpectedly lost, but this work has focused on examining this cost in free-recall paradigms. Using key theoretical differences between recall and recognition, we sought to examine the influences of expecting external memory supports in a recognition memory context across five preregistered experiments, finding evidence for a small cost to unaided recognition memory. We found evidence for a specific cost in recollection (Experiments 2, 3a, and 3b). When testing the effects of expecting external memory support on indices of study effort, there was a reduction to study time which partially mediated the relation between expecting support and memory performance indices, consistent with earlier work using free recall. Individuals did not predict a cost to memory of losing expected support in recognition, contrasting earlier work using free recall.