Outsourcing memory to the external environment: Cognitive offloading, value-based decision making, and metacognition

Abstract:

This talk will summarise a line of experimental work, both laboratory-based and naturalistic, investigating how people use external tools and reminders to help them remember. The key questions are: 1) how do people decide between storing information in internal memory or external reminders; 2) how does this process change across the lifespan; 3) how does it relate to underlying brain activity; and 4) what are the downstream consequences for memory? I will argue that cognitive offloading is experimentally tractable and guided by metacognitive processes. Computational modelling suggests that it can also be seen as a form of value-based decision making. These results suggest real-world interventions that could improve people’s adaptive use of cognitive tools.

Biography:

Sam Gilbert is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London. https://samgilbert.net

The Cognitive Science Colloquium series is the most attended event of our department, hosting monthly talks by world-renowned experts in various fields of cognitive science, including neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, philosophy and anthropology.

2024-2025 Program