New Research: The Effect of Search Engines on Memory

A psychologist at Columbia University, Betsy Sparrow, recently co-published a provocative research article in the journal Science.

Titled, Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips, Sparrow along with two other colleagues (Jenny Liu of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Daniel M. Wegner of Harvard University) carried out research to analyze memory and reliance on search engines.  They found that there is a definite "Google effect" on the way we remember things.

Sparrow's research reveals that we forget things we are confident we can find on the Internet. We are more likely to remember things we think are not available online. And we are better able to remember where to find something on the Internet than we are at remembering the information itself. (From Columbia Research News)  

 There are potential implications for how educators and institutions teach information.  By releasing students from the need to memorize specific facts, we could open them up to larger concepts.  As Sparrow notes:

Perhaps those who teach ... will become increasingly focused on imparting greater understanding of ideas and ways of thinking, and less focused on memorization ....