technology a group matched on age and education. We wanted to know how people were using smartphones and how it related to their performance on various memory tests.
Appy memories
A new study has looked at the potential of mobile phones to aid memory in people with a brain injury.
Dana Wong interviewed by Dallas Bastian
Are smartphones making our brains lazy? It’ s a common concern about the devices and their handy memory tools, but Australian researchers say these applications are more helpful than harmful.
Writing in The Conversation, Dr Dana Wong, researcher and senior lecturer in clinical neuropsychology at Monash University, said smartphone apps allow people to outsource remembering appointments or upcoming tasks.
“ It’ s a common worry that using technology in this way makes our brain’ s memory capacity worse, but the reality is not that simple,” Wong said.
“ In fact, these platforms can be useful, not only for people with memory impairments, but also the general population.”
Wong and her fellow researchers explored the potential of smartphones as memory aids – such as calendars, alarms, contact lists and reminder text messages – by surveying people who have experienced traumatic brain injury or stroke.
They discovered that memory apps can be helpful for people with brain injuries and that using these tools did not affect the memory of people without brain injuries.
Wong said such apps can free people’ s minds to focus on other things, without using up mental resources worrying about what needs to be remembered.
Aged Care Insite spoke with Wong to find out more about her debunking of the myth that memory aids make brains lazy.
ACI: How did you assess whether apps like calendars have a negative impact on memory? DW: We did a range of things across two studies where we asked people with traumatic brain injury in one study, and stroke in the other, about their smartphone use. We compared them with
You said some brain injury and stroke survivors fear that using memory aids may make their memory worse. What would you tell these people? The results of our research, and other research as well, don’ t support that notion. We found that the use of apps as memory aids was helpful for people with traumatic brain injury and stroke, and that it wasn’ t associated with poorer performance on memory tests.
In fact, we found that people with stroke, for example, who used more memory aids on their phones were actually more productive. We measured that by looking at their participation in work activities, in volunteer activities and in study activities. And we found that people who used memory apps on their phone more often, were more productive in their day to day life.
Why are smartphone memory aids so helpful compared to other options such as notepads? One is that they’ re very portable. When you need to be reminded of something, you can just get it out of your pocket or bag and check what you need, rather than, say, something like a bulky diary or wall calendar, or a notepad, which might be too big to take around with you everywhere.
Another advantage is that there are multiple apps in the one device. If you’ re not using a smartphone, you might need to use a diary for one thing and an alarm for another thing, or other kinds of reminders for different purposes. But in your smartphone, you’ ve got a whole range of different apps that you can use to help remember things, including your camera, which you can use to take photos of things you would like to remember. You’ ve also got your GPS to help guide you to places that you need to remember. And of course, calendars and alarms.
And finally, one thing that has been shown to be particularly useful for people with memory difficulties is time-dependent reminders. That is, being able to set an alert that tells you at the time that you need to remember something, and that differs from, say, a diary, where you have to remember to check it.
What barriers might there be to people with brain injury using these apps, and how can they be overcome? We found that people who are older tend to use smartphones less often. So I guess the implication of this finding is that that older adults who might benefit from apps on smartphones might need extra support in learning to use them, and that’ s something we’ re looking at in a research study we’ re planning.
Another thing is that people with stroke who have fine motor difficulties tend to use memory apps less often too. So there might be other options that would suit them better – an iPad or tablet, or you might need to modify the way a smartphone looks, so make the text larger or focus on apps that are voice controlled. For example, voice memos are good for people who don’ t like to type.
And finally, some people, particularly those with more significant memory impairment, might find it difficult to learn new apps, which can be quite complicated. I think in that situation you need to be careful about how you teach somebody to use a new app. That’ s also something we’ re looking at in our research. ■
34 agedcareinsite. com. au