July 14, 2011

google mind

A study of 46 college students found lower rates of recall on newly-learned facts when students thought those facts were saved on a computer for later recovery.

Update:

A study of 46 college students found lower rates of recall on newly-learned facts when students thought those facts were saved on a computer for later recovery.

posted by in internet, memory | * | 6 comments 

comments

  1. Casey Cichowicz on July 14th, 2011 at 9:49 pm

    An influential teacher of mine said to never memorize anything you can look up. Not sure if it’s good advice.

  2. Luke Neff on July 14th, 2011 at 10:11 pm

    “Filtering, not remembering, is the most important skill for those who use the Internet.” – David Dalrymple

  3. Deron Bauman on July 14th, 2011 at 10:12 pm

    I’ll remember that.

  4. Michael Smith on July 14th, 2011 at 11:35 pm

    Holy shit! If I can look up everything, I don’t have to remember anything.

    Hey, anyone know the URL for that search engine?

  5. Joel Bernstein on July 14th, 2011 at 11:49 pm

    Casey was taught by Albert Einstein?

  6. Cindy Scroggins on July 15th, 2011 at 9:14 am

    This has always been my approach. I see little point in filling my mind with meaningless facts. It sometimes plays out in odd ways, though. I’ll get the same question repeatedly in a crossword puzzle, and each time I won’t remember it–I have to work around it to learn the answer (again). I don’t see this as inefficient, though. My many years in libraries have shown me that access to information is key, not ownership of it. I’m convinced that this practice on my part is why I seem able to do so much mental work in a concentrated period of time. My mind is free to do what it does best, without having to navigate a bunch of obstacles.

    None of this is to say that there is isn’t much knowledge that we should hold to. It just has to be relevant to something of importance in your life. Like my ability to quote Beavis & Butthead. That’s important.

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