Forty-six undergraduates were asked difficult trivia questions. Then
words either related to computers (Google, browser, etc.) or not
(target, table) flashed in front of the students, who were asked to
identify the words' color. The theory is that the students would slow
down if the word they saw related to something they were thinking about.
After the challenging quiz, it took subjects 712 milliseconds to
identify the color of computer-related words, compared with 591
milliseconds for the neutral words—suggesting that the trivia questions
had prompted thoughts of using computers and search engines. A related
experiment showed that the students tended to forget fresh information
that they knew would be saved on a computer.
"Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of
Having Information at Our Fingertips," Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu and
Daniel Wegner, Science (Aug. 5)
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