Google effect

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The Google effect, also called digital amnesia, [1] is the tendency to forget information that can be found readily online by using Internet search engines. According to the first study about the Google effect, people are less likely to remember certain details they believe will be accessible online. However, the study also claims that people's ability to learn information offline remains the same. [2] This effect may also be seen as a change to what information and what level of detail is considered to be important to remember.

Contents

History

The phenomenon was first described and named by Betsy Sparrow (Columbia University), Jenny Liu (University of Wisconsin–Madison) and Daniel M. Wegner (Harvard University) in their paper from July 2011. [3] The study was conducted in four parts. The first part had subjects answer a number of both easy and difficult trivia questions, and then perform a modified Stroop task involving both everyday words and technology-related words such as screen and Google. Subjects were slower to respond to technology words, especially after difficult questions, indicating that trivia questions primed them to think of computers. In the second experiment, the subjects read a number of trivia statements. Half of them were led to believe the statements would be saved and available to look up later; the other half were explicitly instructed to attempt to remember them. Both groups were then tested on recall of the statements. In part three, subjects read and typed in trivia statements, and informed that their entry was erased, saved, or saved in a specific location. Afterwards, they were given a recognition task and asked whether they had seen the exact statement, whether it had been saved, and if the statement had been saved, where it had been saved. In the final part, subjects again typed trivia statements, and were told each had been saved in a generically-named folder (e.g. items, facts). They were then given two different recall tasks: one for the statements, and one for the specific folder in which each statement was saved. [4]

The term "digital amnesia" was coined by Kaspersky Lab for the results of an unreviewed survey in 2015 by the security vendor, which said, "The results reveal that the 'Google Effect' likely extends beyond online facts to include important personal information." [1] Instead of remembering details, 91 percent of people used the Internet and 44 percent used their smartphone. [1] Kaspersky Lab surveyed 1000 consumers ranged from age 16 to 55+ in the United States. In most cases, people could not remember important information such as telephone numbers that should have been familiar, leading to the conclusion that they forgot the information because of the ease of finding it using devices. [5]

Phenomenon

The original 2011 study concluded with three main findings. First, people are primed to think of computers when asked general knowledge questions, even when they know the correct answer. In addition, this effect is especially pronounced if the question is difficult and the answer is unknown. Secondly, people do not tend to remember information if they believe it will be available to look up later. By contrast, an explicit instruction to remember the material does not have a significant effect on recall. Lastly, if the information is saved, people are much more likely to remember where the information is located than to recall the information itself. In addition, people tend to remember either the fact or the location, but not both; this effect persists even when the information is more memorable than the name of the location. [4] [6]

A 2012 study by Lav R. Varshney has since proposed that the Google effect can also be seen in doctoral theses, claiming that a longitudinal increase in the number of references cited reflects a tendency for improved memory of where to find relevant information (i.e. which papers contain the information), rather than of the information itself. [7] Furthermore, a related phenomenon has been described in which information learned through the internet is recalled less accurately and with less confidence than information learned via an encyclopedia. Additionally, those recalling information learned via the Internet showed decreased activations in several brain regions—including the bilateral occipital gyrus, left temporal gyrus, and bilateral middle frontal gyrus—compared to the encyclopedia group. [8]

Transactive memory

Sparrow et al. originally claimed that reliance on computers is a form of transactive memory, because people share information easily, forget what they think will be available later, and remember the location of information better than the information itself. They posited that people and their computers are becoming "interconnected systems"; the same underlying processes used in traditional transactive memory to learn who in our social networks know what is also being extended to encompass what a computer knows and how to find it. [4]

The reliance on computers has raised concerns, such as when it prevents one from processing information and internalizing it. In addition, people appear less confident in recalling information learned through Internet searching and that recent Internet searching may promote motivation to use the Internet. [9]

However, several researchers have questioned whether the Google effect is a form of transactive memory, arguing that no transaction is going on between the person and the computer. Therefore, computer networks and the Internet cannot be conceived as a distributed cognitive system. Rather, computers are merely tools exploited to help trigger a memory or to easily look up information. Unlike in traditional transactive memory, the information is not lost without the Internet, but merely slower and more difficult to find. [10] [11]

Replication

In a big Replication study published in Nature 2018, [12] the Google effect was one of the experiments which could not be replicated.

See also

Related Research Articles

Recall in memory refers to the mental process of retrieval of information from the past. Along with encoding and storage, it is one of the three core processes of memory. There are three main types of recall: free recall, cued recall and serial recall. Psychologists test these forms of recall as a way to study the memory processes of humans and animals. Two main theories of the process of recall are the two-stage theory and the theory of encoding specificity.

Source amnesia is the inability to remember where, when or how previously learned information has been acquired, while retaining the factual knowledge. This branch of amnesia is associated with the malfunctioning of one's explicit memory. It is likely that the disconnect between having the knowledge and remembering the context in which the knowledge was acquired is due to a dissociation between semantic and episodic memory – an individual retains the semantic knowledge, but lacks the episodic knowledge to indicate the context in which the knowledge was gained.

In neurology, retrograde amnesia (RA) is the inability to access memories or information from before an injury or disease occurred. RA differs from a similar condition called anterograde amnesia (AA), which is the inability to form new memories following injury or disease onset. Although an individual can have both RA and AA at the same time, RA can also occur on its own; this 'pure' form of RA can be further divided into three types: focal, isolated, and pure RA. RA negatively affects an individual's episodic, autobiographical, and declarative memory, but they can still form new memories because RA leaves procedural memory intact. Depending on its severity, RA can result in either temporally graded or more permanent memory loss. However, memory loss usually follows Ribot's law, which states that individuals are more likely to lose recent memories than older memories. Diagnosing RA generally requires using an Autobiographical Memory Interview (AMI) and observing brain structure through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a computed tomography scan (CT), or electroencephalography (EEG).

Explicit memory is one of the two main types of long-term human memory, the other of which is implicit memory. Explicit memory is the conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences, and concepts. This type of memory is dependent upon three processes: acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval.

State-dependent memory or state-dependent learning is the phenomenon where people remember more information if their physical or mental state is the same at time of encoding and time of recall. State-dependent memory is heavily researched in regards to its employment both in regards to synthetic states of consciousness as well as organic states of consciousness such as mood. While state-dependent memory may seem rather similar to context-dependent memory, context-dependent memory involves an individual's external environment and conditions while state-dependent memory applies to the individual's internal conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transient global amnesia</span> Temporary disruption of short-term memory

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a neurological disorder whose key defining characteristic is a temporary but almost total disruption of short-term memory with a range of problems accessing older memories. A person in a state of TGA exhibits no other signs of impaired cognitive functioning but recalls only the last few moments of consciousness, as well as possibly a few deeply encoded facts of the individual's past, such as their childhood, family, or home perhaps.

In psychology, memory inhibition is the ability not to remember irrelevant information. The scientific concept of memory inhibition should not be confused with everyday uses of the word "inhibition". Scientifically speaking, memory inhibition is a type of cognitive inhibition, which is the stopping or overriding of a mental process, in whole or in part, with or without intention.

Thought suppression is a psychological defence mechanism. It is a type of motivated forgetting in which an individual consciously attempts to stop thinking about a particular thought. It is often associated with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). OCD is when a person will repeatedly attempt to prevent or "neutralize" intrusive distressing thoughts centered on one or more obsessions. It is also thought to be a cause of memory inhibition, as shown by research using the think/no think paradigm. Thought suppression is relevant to both mental and behavioral levels, possibly leading to ironic effects that are contrary to intention. Ironic process theory is one cognitive model that can explain the paradoxical effect.

Transactive memory is a psychological hypothesis first proposed by Daniel Wegner in 1985 as a response to earlier theories of "group mind" such as groupthink. A transactive memory system is a mechanism through which groups collectively encode, store, and retrieve knowledge. Transactive memory was initially studied in couples and families where individuals had close relationships but was later extended to teams, larger groups, and organizations to explain how they develop a "group mind", a memory system that is more complex and potentially more effective than that of any of its individual constituents. A transactive memory system includes memory stored in each individual, the interactions between memory within the individuals, as well as the processes that update this memory. Transactive memory, then, is the shared store of knowledge.

Kent Cochrane, also known as Patient K.C., was a widely studied Canadian memory disorder patient who has been used as a case study in over 20 neuropsychology papers over the span of 25 years. In 1981, Cochrane was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him with severe anterograde amnesia, as well as temporally graded retrograde amnesia. Like other amnesic patients, Cochrane had his semantic memory intact, but lacked episodic memory with respect to his entire past. As a case study, Cochrane has been linked to the breakdown of the single-memory single-locus hypothesis regarding amnesia, which states that an individual memory is localized to a single location in the brain.

Metamemory or Socratic awareness, a type of metacognition, is both the introspective knowledge of one's own memory capabilities and the processes involved in memory self-monitoring. This self-awareness of memory has important implications for how people learn and use memories. When studying, for example, students make judgments of whether they have successfully learned the assigned material and use these decisions, known as "judgments of learning", to allocate study time.

In psychology, implicit memory is one of the two main types of long-term human memory. It is acquired and used unconsciously, and can affect thoughts and behaviours. One of its most common forms is procedural memory, which allows people to perform certain tasks without conscious awareness of these previous experiences; for example, remembering how to tie one's shoes or ride a bicycle without consciously thinking about those activities.

Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or brain diseases, but it can also be temporarily caused by the use of various sedatives and hypnotic drugs. The memory can be either wholly or partially lost due to the extent of damage that was caused.

Memory supports and enables social interactions in a variety of ways. In order to engage in successful social interaction, people must be able to remember how they should interact with one another, whom they have interacted with previously, and what occurred during those interactions. There are a lot of brain processes and functions that go into the application and use of memory in social interactions, as well as psychological reasoning for its importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memory</span> Faculty of mind to store and retrieve data

Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, it would be impossible for language, relationships, or personal identity to develop. Memory loss is usually described as forgetfulness or amnesia.

Childhood amnesia, also called infantile amnesia, is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories before the age of two to four years. It may also refer to the scarcity or fragmentation of memories recollected from early childhood, particularly occurring between the ages of 2 and 6. On average, this fragmented period wanes off at around 4.7 years. Around 5–6 years of age in particular is thought to be when autobiographical memory seems to stabilize and be on par with adults. The development of a cognitive self is also thought by some to have an effect on encoding and storing early memories.

Eyewitness memory is a person's episodic memory for a crime or other witnessed dramatic event. Eyewitness testimony is often relied upon in the judicial system. It can also refer to an individual's memory for a face, where they are required to remember the face of their perpetrator, for example. However, the accuracy of eyewitness memories is sometimes questioned because there are many factors that can act during encoding and retrieval of the witnessed event which may adversely affect the creation and maintenance of the memory for the event. Experts have found evidence to suggest that eyewitness memory is fallible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Misinformation effect</span> Recall of episodic memories becoming less accurate because of post-event information

The misinformation effect occurs when a person's recall of episodic memories becomes less accurate because of post-event information. The misinformation effect has been studied since the mid-1970s. Elizabeth Loftus is one of the most influential researchers in the field. One theory is that original information and the misleading information that was presented after the fact become blended together. Another theory is that the misleading information overwrites the original information. Scientists suggest that because the misleading information is the most recent, it is more easily retrieved.

In psychology, confabulation is a memory error consisting of the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world. It is generally associated with certain types of brain damage or a specific subset of dementias. While still an area of ongoing research, the basal forebrain is implicated in the phenomenon of confabulation. People who confabulate present with incorrect memories ranging from subtle inaccuracies to surreal fabrications, and may include confusion or distortion in the temporal framing of memories. In general, they are very confident about their recollections, even when challenged with contradictory evidence.

External memory is memory that uses cues from the environment to aid remembrance of ideas and sensations. When a person uses something beside one's own internal memory tricks, traits, or talents to help them remember certain events, facts, or even things to do, they are using an external memory aid. External memory aids are used every day. A large part of these aids come from technology; people use their smartphones to remind them when they have meetings and Facebook reminds people of their friends' birthdays. These aids also include taking notes in class, carrying a grocery list to the supermarket, or jotting down dates on a planner. Even people, or prompters, can be used as external memory aids.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Study: Most Americans suffer from 'Digital Amnesia'". WTOP-FM. July 1, 2015. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  2. ↑ Krieger, Lisa M. (July 16, 2011). "Google is changing your brain, study says, and don't you forget it". San Jose Mercury News . Retrieved November 12, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Study Finds That Memory Works Differently in the Age of Google". Columbia University. July 14, 2011. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  4. 1 2 3 Sparrow, B.; Liu, J.; Wegner, D. M. (August 5, 2011). "Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips" (PDF). Science. 333 (6043): 776–778. Bibcode:2011Sci...333..776S. doi:10.1126/science.1207745. PMID   21764755. S2CID   7688306. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ↑ Meyer, Dick (October 12, 2015). "Can't recall phone numbers? Blame 'digital amnesia'". Boston Herald . p. 15.
  6. ↑ Olson, Curtis A. (2012-12-01). "Focused search and retrieval: The impact of technology on our brains". Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions. 32 (1): 1–3. doi:10.1002/chp.21117. PMID   22447705.
  7. ↑ Varshney, Lav R. (2012-02-10). "The Google effect in doctoral theses". Scientometrics. 92 (3): 785–793. doi:10.1007/s11192-012-0654-4. S2CID   12426806.
  8. ↑ Dong, Guangheng; Potenza, Marc N. (2015-10-01). "Behavioural and brain responses related to Internet search and memory". European Journal of Neuroscience. 42 (8): 2546–2554. doi:10.1111/ejn.13039. PMID   26262779. S2CID   30654435.
  9. ↑ Rowlands, Ian; Nicholas, David; Williams, Peter; Huntington, Paul; Fieldhouse, Maggie; Gunter, Barrie; Withey, Richard; Jamali, Hamid R.; Dobrowolski, Tom; Tenopir, Carol (2008). "The Google generation: the information behaviour of the researcher of the future". ASLIB Proceedings. 60 (4): 290–310. doi:10.1108/00012530810887953. S2CID   15674801.
  10. ↑ Huebner, Bryce (2016-03-01). "Transactive Memory Reconstructed: Rethinking Wegner's Research Program". The Southern Journal of Philosophy. 54 (1): 48–69. doi:10.1111/sjp.12160.
  11. ↑ Huebner, Bryce (2013-12-01). "Socially embedded cognition". Cognitive Systems Research. Socially Extended Cognition. 25–26: 13–18. doi:10.1016/j.cogsys.2013.03.006. S2CID   25795227.
  12. ↑ Camerer, Colin F.; Dreber, Anna; Holzmeister, Felix; Ho, Teck-Hua; Huber, Jürgen; Johannesson, Magnus; Kirchler, Michael; Nave, Gideon; Nosek, Brian A. (2018-08-27). "Evaluating the replicability of social science experiments in Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015". Nature Human Behaviour. 2 (9): 637–644. doi:10.1038/s41562-018-0399-z. ISSN   2397-3374. PMID   31346273. S2CID   52098703.
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