Memory in the Palm of Your Hand: Smartphone-based Methods for Measuring Memory in the Wild

Abstract

Our memories for personally experienced events are essential to who we are and what we do, yet methodological constraints have limited our ability to sample these real-world memories in the real world. The pervasive use of smartphones and wearable technology provides new opportunities to capture these events in the moment and in the wild. These new opportunities also come with new considerations for the design and analysis of memory experiments. Gathering lessons across forays into smartphone-based memory capture in our three laboratories, this Perspective aims to highlight important decision points, consider pros and cons of different approaches, and provide some tips and tricks to help researchers explore the wilds of smartphone-based memory.