Cued recall: Using photo-elicitation to examine the distributed processes of remembering with photographs

Abstract

In studies of cued recall, responses to photographic stimuli have often been examined in isolation of related photography practices (e.g. taking, organising, or sharing images), and without considering how photographs are used. In contrast, photo-elicitation methods position photographs not simply as cues, but as meaningful artefacts around which accounts of the past are constructed. Drawing on photo-elicitation interviews, I examine cued recall from a distributed cognition perspective, proposing that it consists of varying combinations of several, potentially-distributed processes. First, looking at photographs can catalyse remembering by surfacing relevant ideas, followed by: stimulation (of feelings and emotions), simulation and narrative production, association, inference, and meaning-making. Using examples from my interviews, I consider how each process is socially and materially configured. I then discuss the role of diverse photographic practices in the convergence of these processes, and the implications for conceptions of cueing, recall, and autobiographical memory.