Google effects on memory

Four studies suggest that searching for information on the Internet decreases our recall of the information but enhances our recall of where to access it.

The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger.

No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want. We can Google the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue.

When faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers as a solution and expect to have future access to information they find.

The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.

If these arguments seem familiar, it may be because Plato reported that Socrates said exactly the same thing about writing:

Socrates lived relatively shortly after the invention of the Greek alphabet and the widespread adoption of writing.

...for this discovery of yours [writing] will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.

Writing is still with us.

Source: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/07/13/science.1207745