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The internet is tricking our brains - NBC
Researchers are finding that the intersection of Google, smartphones and our memories is starting to mess with how we judge our own abilities.
Every now and then, Adrian Ward likes to test himself against the internet’s most-used search engine.
“There are times when I have the impulse to Google something, and I don’t,” said Ward, who studies psychology as an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Because,” he said, “I want to see if I can drag that up from memory.”
It’s a challenge that’s familiar to anyone with a smartphone in their pocket who can’t quite remember the year that a favorite album came out or the name of an actor in an old movie. Take out the phone? Or rack the brain?
Researchers are finding that the intersection of Google, smartphones and our memories is starting to mess with how we judge our own abilities.
Every now and then, Adrian Ward likes to test himself against the internet’s most-used search engine.
“There are times when I have the impulse to Google something, and I don’t,” said Ward, who studies psychology as an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Because,” he said, “I want to see if I can drag that up from memory.”
It’s a challenge that’s familiar to anyone with a smartphone in their pocket who can’t quite remember the year that a favorite album came out or the name of an actor in an old movie. Take out the phone? Or rack the brain?