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memory
Your brain is outsourcing your memory to technology.
A 2011 study found that people are less likely to remember facts if they believe they can search them later.
When participants were told a computer would save their notes, their recall of the actual information dropped significantly. The brain treats the computer as an external hard drive, prioritizing the location of the info over the content itself. This shift is sometimes referred to as the Google effect.
You are beginning to remember where to look, not what you know.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Sparrow, Liu, and Wegner, 2011, Science
- What the check found
- The study (Sparrow et al., Science 2011) is correctly identified and the core finding regarding the Google effect is accurately summarized.
- 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.