Though we live in a time of unprecedented informational proliferation, the Internet has consequently made our memories less reliable, according to findings from Science Magazine.
The report, composed of four studies, suggests that people automatically think about computers when asked difficult questions. The report also suggests that a person’s ability to retain and recall uhh… stuff gained through studying…. umm, information! Yeah, our ability to retain and recall information is lower when people expect to be able to use the search engine Google to attain the information at any time.
However, the study is not necessarily as ominous as it sounds. “It’s allowing us to have access too much more external memory; our network of people is just vastly expanded,” says Columbia University psych professor Betsy Sparrow.
[via Business Insider]
