Contrary to popular belief, using digital devices like smartphones could help improve memory skills, based on a recent study.

Popular belief dictates that smartphones often find yourself making people lazy thinkers since people are likely to use their devices as a strategy to avoid interested by things that usually are not vitally essential.

But a recent research published in Journal of Experimental Psychology: General said otherwise, suggesting that digital devices help people store and remember essential information. In turn, this helps release memory to assist recall less essential things.

This contradicts what neuroscientists previously said concerning the overuse of technology leading to the breakdown of cognitive abilities, resulting in what’s called as “digital dementia.”

To exhibit their findings, the researchers developed a memory task to be played on a pc or touchscreen digital tablet. About 158 volunteers aged between 18 and 71 took the test.

The participants were shown as much as 12 numbered circles on the screen and tasked to recollect and drag some to the left or to the fitting. The variety of circles they placed into the right side determined their pay once the experiment ended. One in all the side was designated “high value,” which meant remembering to tug a circle to that side was price so far more than dragging one to the opposite side, designated “low value.”

For half of the trials, the participants were asked to recollect by memory alone, while the remaining half allowed them to make reminders on digital devices.

After the participants performed the duty 16 times, the outcomes found that participants stored high-value circles on the digital devices and their memories improved by 18%. Meanwhile, their memory for low-value circles improved by 27%.

When the digital devices were taken away, the participants remembered the low-value circles higher than the high-value ones.

“This was because using the device shifted the best way that individuals used their memory to store high-importance versus low-importance information,” said Senior writer Dr. Sam Gilbert, UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.

“The outcomes show that external memory tools work. Removed from causing ‘digital dementia,’ using an external memory device may even improve our memory for information that we never saved.”