Use of Internet search engines alters how we remember

Science is beginning to examine the effects of online search engines such as Google on how and what we remember. The New York Times health section recently reported an article in Science magazine summarizing four studies that showed people made less effort to remember something when they thought they would be able to find it again later on a computer. In fact, participants remembered where to find the information better than aspects of the actual information. This is one of the first studies to show how our dependence on Internet search tools impacts our memory strategies, which could lead to over-reliance on external devices to recall information. To read the NYT article, follow this link.