Results: Behaviors and Experiences with Internal and External Memory

Abstract

In this chapter, we continue reporting the results of our comprehensive survey study on the interplay of internal and external memory in everyday life and how that is changing in the early twenty-first century (N = 476 Mechanical Turk participants). We report the descriptive statistics for questions about behaviors and experiences with internal memory and external memory. Specific topics include low-tech strategies, taking notes, reasons for external memory retrieval failures, passwords, phone numbers, backup practices, social media, and photos. Overall, results show that, for many, technology plays a large and increasing role in supporting human memory. We also introduce a distinction between episodic external memory and semantic external memory, which we will further address in Chapters 4 and 8.