Internet usage is changing the way we interact with information. That is the conclusion of American researchers. People are less likely to remember information if they know that they are later able to look up.
Researchers from Columbia University have the impact of the internet on the functioning of the human memory are examined. They came to the conclusion that people are less inclined to remember information if they can easily find. The research shows that people remember how they have the answer to a question, that they have the answer to remember yourself.
According to the researchers, this is due to the principle of ‘transactief memory, which is also in groups occurs. People are not able to remember everything, so they learn from any person they can get information. In the case of the internet, lean people are not on the group but on the search engines and databases, according to researchers.
The scientists conducted four experiments, in which sixty students, for example, trivial information had to type on a computer. Half of them were told that the ingeklopte information would be saved; the other half was told that this was removed. The group was told that the information was deleted, sees the typed information better than the other group. In another experiment had subjects to remember two things: a fact and in which of five computerfolders this fact could be found. The subjects appeared better able to remember in which folder the fact would be saved.
According to the researchers, this does not mean that the internet is us ‘stupider’: people have thanks to the internet, access to a large amount of information. Although there often is spoken about the disadvantages of the continuously connected, this can also of nostalgia, write the researchers. “We depend on our gadgets become, in the same way that we depend on the knowledge of our friends and colleagues.” The connection to the internet is becoming more and more like losing a friend’, they argue.
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