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memory
You stop remembering facts you know are stored digitally.
The Google effect shows that you are less likely to remember information if you believe it is easily accessible online.
Participants were faster to recall where information was saved on a computer than to recall the information itself. Your brain offloads the effort of retention when it trusts that the data is retrievable.
You have traded internal knowledge for the ability to locate it.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Sparrow, Liu, and Wegner (2011)
- What the check found
- The claim accurately reflects the primary finding of the 2011 study by Sparrow, Liu, and Wegner regarding digital amnesia and cognitive offloading.
- 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.