The research, published in Psychological Science, studied two groups of people walking through a museum while listening to an audio guide. One group was able to take photos freely, while the other was asked to leave their cameras and phones outside.

Despite what we might think – and no doubt to the annoyance of those who can’t stand seeing blue phone screens saved around at every public event – the group taking photos was found to have a better memory of the exhibition than those who didn’t, although they had a poorer memory for the content of the audio guide.

Speaking to The New York Times, Alix Barasch, one of the authors and an assistant professor at the New York University Stern School of Business, said the results showed that concentrating on visuals while taking a photo can take our attention away from other senses such as hearing.

Essentially, taking photos of an event “actually causes you to encode visual content and remember it,” Dr. Barasch added.

The surprising way taking a photo affects your memory of an event