*Result*: Meta-analytic investigations of the effect of cognitive offloading on memory-based task performance and interindividual variability.
Title:
Meta-analytic investigations of the effect of cognitive offloading on memory-based task performance and interindividual variability.
Authors:
Burnett LK; Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA. Katie_Burnett@baylor.edu., Richmond LL; Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA.
Source:
Memory & cognition [Mem Cognit] 2026 Jan; Vol. 54 (1), pp. 144-168. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Jun 11.
Publication Type:
Journal Article; Meta-Analysis
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Psychonomic Society Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0357443 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1532-5946 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 0090502X NLM ISO Abbreviation: Mem Cognit Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Original Publication: Austin Tx Psychonomic Society
MeSH Terms:
References:
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Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: Cognitive offloading; Memory; Meta-analysis; Meta-analysis of variance
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20250611 Date Completed: 20260202 Latest Revision: 20260202
Update Code:
20260203
DOI:
10.3758/s13421-025-01743-8
PMID:
40500483
Database:
MEDLINE
*Further Information*
*Humans have long used external resources to overcome limitations of internal memory. However, experimental research investigating the efficacy of these strategies has emerged relatively recently. Given the rapidly growing interest in this topic, we conducted two meta-analyses to answer key questions regarding the effects of cognitive offloading - the use of physical action to reduce internal cognitive demand - on the performance of memory-based tasks. A meta-analysis of mean differences revealed that the benefit of offloading is greater for forced- compared to choice-offloading conditions and within- compared to between-subject designs. A meta-analysis of variance found that cognitive offloading reduces interindividual variability in the performance of memory-based tasks and that the reduction is greater for adults compared to children, for forced- compared to choice-offloading conditions, and for prospective compared to retrospective memory tasks. Study modality was not a significant moderator in either analysis. We discuss the applied, theoretical, and methodological implications of these findings.
(© 2025. The Psychonomic Society, Inc.)*
*Declarations. Ethics approval: All individual studies reported in the present meta-analyses obtained ethics approval from their Institutional Review Board prior to conducting the research. Consent to participate: All individual studies reported in the present meta-analyses obtained informed consent from their participants. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest or competing interests to declare. Open practices statement: This study was not pre-registered. We report our search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, as well as our data extraction and coding process for the present meta-analyses. Our data, analysis code, and results are available on the Open Science Framework at: https://osf.io/6gzvb/?view_only=02ba06a319794d9eb5948b3f5e763f2f*