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memory
You outsource your memory to a search engine.
The brain is less likely to retain information if it knows that data can be easily retrieved elsewhere.
A 2011 study demonstrated that participants forgot facts more quickly when they believed the information was saved on a computer. Your brain treats the internet as an extension of your memory bank. It chooses to store the location of the information rather than the content itself.
You know where to find knowledge, but not what it is.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Sparrow, Liu, and Wegner, 2011
- What the check found
- The findings by Sparrow, Liu, and Wegner (2011) confirm the 'Google effect,' where reliance on external memory leads to decreased recall of the content itself.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.