Effects of Photographic Reviews on Recollections of the Personal Past: A New Perspective on Benefits and Costs

Abstract

Empirical studies of the power of photographs on recollections of the personal past have produced a complicated set of results, with reports of both costs and benefits on recollection accuracy. The purpose of the selective review offered in the current paper is to cast in new light this complicated pattern of findings by calling for close attention to the acts of looking, including the timing of the looking in relation to acts of remembering. Incorporating a broad range of scholarly perspectives, the current article’s interdisciplinary component points to specific features of photograph-looking experiences that warrant further study. The current review provides an overview of benefits in memory for event and event details, indexed by enhancements in recall and recognition measures. The overview of costs includes reductions in the amount remembered as well as changes in belief about event occurrences. Reconstruction accounts of the basis for these effects follows the analysis of benefits and costs. The new perspective in the current review leads to intriguing directions for future research involving content of photographs, the ways they are obtained, and aspects of the photograph review experience.