Psychologists warn Google is fuelling a rise in forgetfulness
Scientists at Harvard University are warning that people’s growing reliance on the internet for fact-checking and sourcing basic information is fuelling growing levels of forgetfulness across society.
Researchers found that children today have worse memories than their parents; particularly facts which are readily available online such as geographical details.
The study involved testing participants on information recall in situations where they believed the data to be stored on a computer and where they were told it had been erased. In the latter instance participants were more likely to recall the information.
Another experiment saw the team pose a series of trivia questions to students both with and without Google and asked them to rate their own intelligence. Those who obtained answers from the internet rated their intelligence higher than those reliant on their own knowledge.
Report authors Daniel Wegner and Adrian Ward, wrote in the journal Scientific American: “Our work suggests that we treat the internet much like a human transactive memory partner [a person we share personal details with].
“We off-load memories to ‘the cloud’ just as readily as we would to a family member, friend or lover.
“It seems that the propensity for off-loading information to digital sources is so strong that people are often unable to fix details in their own thoughts when in the presence of a cyberbuddy.
“They said that having the internet ‘undermines the impulse to ensure that some important facts get inscribed into our biological memory banks.”