Turns Out That Taking Photos Really Does Help You Remember All Those Great Experiences

研究发现，拍照片真的能帮你把那些美好的回忆记得更牢

Is our non-stop photo-taking pulling us out of the moments that matter and causing us to forget what we've seen? Maybe not, according to new research looking at the relationship between snapping pictures and forming memories.

我们那从不停止的拍照恶习真的在让我们无法享受当下、并让我们忘了自己看到了什么吗？根据一项最新的关于拍照和记忆形成的研究，事实可能并不是这样。

During the study, 294 volunteers were asked to tour a museum exhibit listening to an audio guide – those in one group were encouraged to take photos, while those in another had to leave their phones and cameras behind.

在这项研究里，294名志愿者被要求戴着有声向导参观一家博物馆——其中一组被鼓励多拍照片，而另一组则必须把他们的手机和相机留下。

When questioned afterwards, the photo takers could remember more about what they'd seen and less about what they'd heard.

在后续的问询中，拍照片的一组能记住更多他们看到的东西，但却只能记住更少他们听到的内容。

The result suggests the act of taking pictures and seeking out worthy¹ frames to capture helps fix memories in our minds, according to the researchers.

研究者们说，这个结果表明：拍照这个动作，以及寻找值得拍的角度的过程，都在帮助我们稳固大脑中的记忆。

"Our research is novel because it shows that photo-taking itself improves memory for visual aspects of an experience but can hurt memory for non-visual aspects, like auditory details," said the team, from New York University, University of Southern California, University of Pennsylvania and Yale University, in a statement.

“我们的研究是革新性的，它表明拍照能够强化我们对一段经历的视觉记忆，但却会妨碍非视觉的记忆——比如听到的细节。”研究团队在一次声明中说到。（这个研究团队的成员分别来自纽约大学、南加州大学、宾夕法尼亚大学和耶鲁大学）

The museum test was backed up with a follow-up experiment using a virtual art gallery app on a smartphone.

这次博物馆实验得到了一个后续实验的支持，这个实验用的是智能手机上的虚拟画廊。

Some volunteers could take screenshots and some couldn't, and the same pattern was repeated – those who grabbed digital memories remembered more of what they'd seen, but less of what they'd heard from an audio commentary.

一些志愿者可以进行截屏，而另一些则不能；实验结果中出现了同样的模式——那些可以截屏的人记住了更多他们看到的东西，但却记住了更少的他们听到的音频评论。

The positive effect on visual memory was greater than the negative effect on auditory memory, the researchers found.

研究者们还发现：视觉记忆上的增强效果大于听觉记忆上的削弱效果。

What's more, in both experiments those who could snap photos were also more likely to remember objects they hadn't specifically taken pictures of as well as ones they had.

此外，在两个试验中，那些能够拍照的人都更容易记住一些他们并没有特地去拍的东西。

"These findings suggest that having a camera changes how people approach an experience in a fundamental way," says the team.

研究团队说：“这说明，光是拿着一个相机，就能从根本上改变人们对待一次经历的方式。”

The research has been published in Psychological Science.

这项研究是被发表在《心理科学》上的。