Sparrow et al

Question 1

negative effect of technology on memory

Answer 1

• if the internet has become an enormous transactive meory store, individuals would no longer need to remeber info but would simplu need to rmbr how to search for it
• we invsest less effort in commiting information to memory if we belive we can simply retrieve the info from an external memory store such as Google.

Question 2

aim

Answer 2

to investigate how technology can lead to cognitive offloading of factual information, to see if knowing that we would have access to saved information later would affect semantic memory

Question 3

procedure

Answer 3

• participants were asked to type 40 trivia facts into a computer
• randomly assigned to two groups: one grpup participants were told that the compurter would store everything they typed for future reference, The oter group participants were told taht the information would be erased
• in each group participants were randomly divided into two subgroups - half were explicitly told to remeber the facts while the other half were not otld to remeber and were all tested afterwards

Question 4

results

Answer 4

• participants told that the computer would erase the information rmbred significantly more of the facts (30%) than participants told that the computer woudl store the info (20%)
• thus if participants thought they had access to the info, they scored worse on a test of the facts they wrote down

Question 5

conclusion

Answer 5

• when people expect that info will be stored, they make less effort in rmbring it- offloading the memory onto the computer
• even when asked to rmbr smth they wont bother memorizing the info if the know it will be electronically stored
• sipports the tehory of cognitive offloading, demonstarting how technology allows peiple to offload cognitie tasks

Question 6

strenths of study

Answer 6

• well controlled lab experiemnt demonstarting a casual relationshio between the IV (whther participants expect the compurer to stor the inf) and DV (rate of recal)

Question 7

limitations

Answer 7

may have had demand caharcteristics- particpants might have guess what the experimegt was about and deliberately put in less effort to go along with the aim of the study.