Internet Use Affects Memory, Study Finds
By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: July 14, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/he...mory.html?_r=1

The widespread use of search engines and online databases has affected the way people remember information, researchers are reporting.

The scientists, led by Betsy Sparrow, an assistant professor of psychology at Columbia, wondered whether people were more likely to remember information that could be easily retrieved from a computer, just as students are more likely to recall facts they believe will be on a test.

Dr. Sparrow and her collaborators, Daniel M. Wegner of Harvard and Jenny Liu of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, staged four different memory experiments. In one, participants typed 40 bits of trivia — for example, “an ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain” — into a computer. Half of the subjects believed the information would be saved in the computer; the other half believed the items they typed would be erased.

The subjects were significantly more likely to remember information if they thought they would not be able to find it later. “Participants did not make the effort to remember when they thought they could later look up the trivia statement they had read,” the authors write.

A second experiment was aimed at determining whether computer accessibility affects precisely what we remember. “If asked the question whether there are any countries with only one color in their flag, for example,” the researchers wrote, “do we think about flags — or immediately think to go online to find out?”

In this case, participants were asked to remember both the trivia statement itself and which of five computer folders it was saved in. The researchers were surprised to find that people seemed better able to recall the folder.

“That kind of blew my mind,” Dr. Sparrow said in an interview.

The experiment explores an aspect of what is known as transactive memory — the notion that we rely on our family, friends and co-workers as well as reference material to store information for us.

“I love watching baseball,” Dr. Sparrow said. “But I know my husband knows baseball facts, so when I want to know something I ask him, and I don’t bother to remember it.”

The Internet’s effects on memory are still largely unexplored, Dr. Sparrow said, adding that her experiments had led her to conclude that the Internet has become our primary external storage system.

“Human memory,” she said, “is adapting to new communications technology.”

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Morer accurately then, human memory is just another information system which doesn't waste its resources duplicating systems it knows already exist.

Much the same argument could be made for a stoneage tribe; individuals don't bother to remember things when they know they have and elder who will do it for them, or a publicly repeated song that retains the information.

I thought I read that report, but now I'm not so sure, so I looked it up:

Human Brain Adopts Internet as Memory Substitute
By Mary Staub, InnovationNewsDaily

Throughout history, curmudgeonly scholars have argued that information technology makes people more stupid. Socrates complained that the written word would lead to forgetfulness, and bookmakers of the Renaissance feared the printing press would lead to a loss of studiousness as cheap books fell into the hands of the unworthy. Recently, journalists and scientists have made similar claims about the Internet in general and search engines in particular. After all, why learn something when you can just look it up?

Now researchers have tested this notion through a number of experiments that probe the relationship between memory and the Internet. The results imply that people have shifted from remembering specific facts to remembering where on the Internet they can go to find those facts.

Although this memory-formation phenomenon applies to all information sources, from the written word to knowledgeable friends, the sheer scale of information available on the Internet makes it a mental crutch of unique scale.

Where it all falls down of course is if a treasured internet site should vanish. With the demise of News of the World there will be millions of Brits who find that they have total amnesia - although blessedly, they may have trouble remembering how much they have forgotten.

In fact the memories of middle aged and olds who often browse the Internet is boost up. And the good news is that they are far from having Alzheimer and dementia diseases. I guess browsing makes us even smarter.

Was bathida03 banned because marathon browsing obsession made him, her, it or them obnoxiosly smart? If so, how can I use my browsing habits to become engagingly idiotic?