Internet use changes human memory
The frequent use of search engines and online resources has changed the way we memorize information, reports a scientific study. Computers and the internet have become a kind of auxiliary memory. Rather than remembering certain facts, people remember how to find them online. Published in the prestigious journal Science, the research was conducted under the direction of Betsy Sparrow, Institute of Psychology, University of Colombia, United States.
The study notes that the Internet has become a kind of external storage of our memory, on which the human rests. This phenomenon is already known as "transactive memory": an individual will remember who to consult among his relatives or where to look for information, rather than make the effort to retain it himself.
An experiment conducted in the context of the study shows that when a user believes that he can easily access information typed in a document, he memorizes it less well than if he thinks that it will then be erased from the computer. However, he will easily remember where the document was stored. "Human memory is adapting to new communication technologies," Betsy Sparrow concludes in an interview for The New York Times. Thanks to the possibility of constantly accessing immense sources of information online, the man thus delegates to the machines a part of his memory.
T. Tissot
Source: http://www.ceriseclub.com/actualites/20 ... maine.html
As a "net pro" I largely confirm this, why withhold an X info when you usually find it by typing "wiki X info" on google? A good example in practice concerning me about the% of wood in the primary energy balance of humanity, cf https://www.econologie.com/forums/synthese-g ... 10950.html
Another article: http://www.rtl.be/loisirs/hightech/news ... a-memoire-
According to a very serious study of the journal Science, Internet users are already adapting to a new form of memory related to cyberspace. After observing the reactions of a group of volunteers, Betsy Sparrow and her team came to surprising conclusions.
First device, the participants had to write on a computer several unusual sentences like for example "the eye of an ostrich is bigger than its brain". It was then told to one half of the group that the information would be saved and the other half would be erased. As a result of the experiment, individuals believing that the file was backed up remember less often typed content while others tended to remember it. There is then a central role left to the computer as an auxiliary memory.
Another exercise reported in the journal Science, scientists asked the question: "Which countries have only one color on their flag? The idea being to check what was the first reflex, think of the flags or search online directly. To pass this test, it was necessary not only to retain the information sought (the phrase typed on a search engine) and in which file among the proposed 5 were stored the results. To everyone's surprise, candidates mostly retain the file where the answer is recorded rather than the information sought (the country flags).
We would prefer to remember the query to the search engine rather than its result because it can be found at any time. This type of memory is known as transactive memory, that is to say that we prefer to consult a close or here a computer rather than hold ourselves a given information. In conclusion, the study envisages the Internet as an external storage to our knowledge which our memory of surfer would have already adapted. Could this be another step towards the famous man-machine interface fantasized by science fiction writers?
We can broaden the debate on the impact of new technologies on the skills of the human brain ...