Today, nearly everyone is a photographer, snapping picture upon picture with their smartphones. It's a great way to collect memories, right?

Fairfield University psychology professor Linda Henkel begs to differ.

Last year, she garnered worldwide attention with a study showing that taking pictures of events actually harms the photographer's memory of that moment.

"Basically, there's a kind of `directed forgetting' where you say, `I don't need to remember this,' " Henkel said. "We're kind of counting on the camera to remember for us."

Henkel will speak on her research -- published in the December issue of Psychological Science -- at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Fairfield University Bookstore, 1499 Post Road, Fairfield. For the study, she and a group of psychology students looked at two groups of visitors to Fairfield U.'s Bellarmine Museum. One group just looked at items on display, and the other took photos of items as they browsed the museum.

Henkel's research showed that the picture-takers were less likely to remember details about the objects they'd seen.

"People act as if the photograph itself is the memory," she said. "It's not."

For one thing, Henkel said, not everyone looks at the oodles and oodles of photos they take during a vacation, a museum visit or a child's school play. Also, capturing a moment just isn't the same thing as fully enjoying it.

"People travel to Paris and they take picture of the Mona Lisa without really looking at it with their own eyes," she said.

The study quickly caught the eye of media outlets across the globe, including talk show hostess Chelsea Handler, who mentioned it on her E! talk show, "Chelsea Lately." Henkel said the study likely touched a nerve with people, because it speaks to the way they live their lives today.

But she hopes that people don't think she's advocating against taking pictures. Far from it.

"I say be more selective about the pictures you take, and look at them afterward," Henkel said.

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