Google has made our memories lazy, say scientists

The rise of Google has damaged our memories by changing the way we learn and remember information, according to a study. Having practically all the information we could ever need at our fingertips has caused us to subconsciously not store away as much data, scientists claim.
Researchers have examined the role of the internet in the changing nature of human memory.

For instance, we forget things we are confident we can find online, while we are more likely to remember things we think are unavailable online. Furthermore, we are better able to remember where to find something on the internet than we are at remembering the information itself.

Googling has caused us to subconsciously not store away as much data

Lead researcher Betsy Sparrow, of Columbia University, said: 'Since the advent of search engines, we are reorganising the way we remember things. 'Our brains rely on the internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member or co-worker.

'We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.' Professor Sparrow also found that we are better able to remember where to find something online than we are at remembering the information itself.

Her team's study is believed to be the first research of its kind into the impact of search engines on human memory organisation. The internet has become a primary form of what psychologists call transactive memory - recollections that are external to us but that we know when and how to access.
The research was carried out in four studies.

First, participants were asked to answer a series of difficult trivia questions. Then they were immediately tested to see if they had increased difficulty with a basic colour naming task, which showed participants words in either blue or red.

Their reaction time to search engine-related words, like Google and Yahoo!, indicated that, after the difficult trivia questions, participants were thinking of Internet search engines as the way to find information.

Second, the trivia questions were turned into statements. Participants read the statements and were tested for their recall of them when they believed the statements had been saved - meaning accessible to them later as is the case with the Internet - or erased.

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Participants did not learn the information as well when they believed the information would be accessible, and performed worse on the memory test than participants who believed the information was erased.

Third, the same trivia statements were used to test memory of both the information itself and where the information could be found. Participants again believed that information either would be saved in general, saved in a specific spot, or erased.

They recognised the statements which were erased more than the two categories which were saved.
Fourth, participants believed all trivia statements that they typed would be saved into one of five generic folders. When asked to recall the folder names, they did so at greater rates than they recalled the trivia statements themselves.

A deeper analysis revealed that people do not necessarily remember where to find certain information when they remember what it was, and that they particularly tend to remember where to find information when they can't remember the information itself.

According to Professor Sparrow, a greater understanding of how our memory works in a world with search engines has the potential to change teaching and learning in all fields. She said: 'Perhaps those who teach in any context, be they college professors, doctors or business leaders, will become increasingly focused on imparting greater understanding of ideas and ways of thinking, and less focused on memorisation.

'And perhaps those who learn will become less occupied with facts and more engaged in larger questions of understanding.' The research is published in the journal Science.

TEN MILLION FLOCK TO GOOGLE +

Google has announced that more than ten million people have signed up for its new social network.
Google+ is proving phenomenally popular, the company's CEO Larry Page told analysts in San Francisco.

It marks Google's biggest foray into the hot social networking arena and the vanguard of its battle with Facebook and Twitter for websurfers' time and attention.

Google is fighting technology heavyweights that also include Apple and Microsoft, as well as upstarts such as Groupon, as it seeks to protect its lucrative search business at a time when mobile gadgets and social media are redefining the way consumers use the web.

© Daily Mail, London / ST