A critical review of the effects of wearable cameras on memory

Abstract

The rise of "lifelogging" in this era of rapid technological innovation has led to great interest in whether such technologies could be used to rehabilitate memory. Despite the growing number of studies using lifelogging, such as with wearable cameras, there is a lack of a theoretical framework to support its effective use. The present review focuses on the use of wearable cameras. We propose that wearable cameras can be particularly effective for memory rehabilitation if they can evoke more than a mere familiarity with previous stimuli, and reinstate previous thoughts, feelings and sensory information: recollection. Considering that, in memory impairment, self-initiated processes to reinstate previous encoding conditions are compromised, we invoke the environmental support hypothesis as a theoretical motivation.Twenty-five research studies were included in this review. We conclude that, despite the general acceptance of the value of wearable cameras as a memory rehabilitation technique, only a small number of studies have focused on recollection. We highlight a set of methodological issues that should be considered for future research, including sample size, control condition used, and critical measures of memory and other domains. We conclude by suggesting that research should focus on the theory-driven measure of efficacy described in this review, so that lifelogging technologies can contribute to memory rehabilitation in a meaningful and effective OverviewAn issue of major importance for memory rehabilitation and cognitive neuroscientific theory is whether some new memory aid could retrieve memories that were otherwise inaccessible, or 'lost'. This issue has always been contentious in human memory research (e.g. Loftus & Loftus, 1980). To what extent it is possible to retrieve forgotten events is now of critical importance to the field, since a new technological challenge has arisen for memory researchers: can lifelogging technology act to aid the retrieval of autobiographical memories? (e.g. Doherty, Moulin, & Smeaton, 2011).Lifelogging is defined as the almost constant capture of data and images from our own life for future reference. In particular the neuropsychological community has become interested in wearable cameras, such as SenseCam. In this review, we focus on human memory, and recollection more specifically, to illustrate our view that memory may be rehabilitated by providing the right cues from life-logging style technologies. There are, of course, other research and clinical applications of life-logging devices. For instance, Gemming et al. (2013) showed that the use of a wearable camera facilitated the recall of dietary behaviours, thereby reducing the under-report of calorie intake. Here we focus on the examination of what is lost from memory, and whether digital materials could ever come close to providing the perfect memory aid. There is a fundamental point here: if we watch a stream of images from our past life, are we capable of remembering it all; will it all cue the retrieval of...

Supporting older and younger adults’ memory for recent everyday events: A prospective sampling study using SenseCam

“…A small number of previous studies have found some support for the latter hypothesis, including the finding that passively captured images lead to better memory than actively captured images (Sellen et al, 2007), and that recognition memory is better after reviewing images from one's own SC, compared to images taken from an altered perspective (St. Jacques & Schacter, 2013). However, a recent review by Silva, Pinho, Macedo and Moulin (2016) emphasised the need for more research evaluating SC's potential to cue recollection (i.e. "something more" than what can be seen in the images), which is largely absent from the SC literature on healthy participants.…”

“…However, in that study only a small number of images were presented (6 per sequence) and the dependent variable was recognition of related images. In the present experiment, we examined whether narrative-style recall is also hurt by randomising the image sequence, which presents the opportunity to investigate whether SC can support recall of "something more" than what is shown in the images, as Silva et al (2016) suggested. In addition, all images captured by SC were presented to participants, thereby allowing us to compare the two hypotheses put forward by Hodges et al (2011).…”

“…The dependent variables of interest were episodic and semantic information, for two reasons: first, to maintain consistency with the previous research in the field of AM in ageing, so that our findings would be directly comparable to the findings concerning age differences in memory for significant events. Second, measuring episodic recall allows us to evaluate the effectiveness of SC for cueing recollective experience (Silva et al, 2016 M=69.10,SD=3.53; 11 females) participated for a payment of £8 per hour. Young adults were recruited through advertisements displayed around the university, while older adults were recruited from the University of the Third Age (n=8), a local newspaper advertisement (n=7) and through word of mouth (n=6).…”

“…Participants recalled the event while viewing the photographs, therefore were encouraged to recall information that was "something more" than what was depicted in the images (see Silva et al, 2016). The reasons for concurrent viewing and recall were twofold.…”

It is not only memory: effects of sensecam on improving well-being in patients with mild alzheimer disease

“…The fact is that, whilst specificity remains high (according to our findings in the cognitive part of our research), there is significant a return of some depressive symptoms, meaning that we might question whether the mechanism is directly memory specificity, but some other generalised benefit or pleasure of using the device, for example. As the advanced IADLs are known to be the first to be affected by the preclinical and mild stages of AD (Sikkes et al, 2011), and, as such, are those that need early neuropsychological interventions (Clare, Wilson, Carter, Hodges and Adams 2001;Clare et al, 2010), this short term effect of both SenseCam and Memo+ for advanced IADLs is of value for early intervention in AD (Silva et al, 2016). However, for future study, as we only accounted for perceived functional capacity, these findings should be correlated with more objective measures of functionality (direct observation, etc.)…”