研究：Google改變人腦的記憶方式 /Google Effect: Changes to our Brains

網際網路已成為心理學家稱之為「交換記憶」（transactive memory）的一種主要形式，這是指當我們知道何時以及如何存取訊息時，記憶可透過外部協助完成。


哥倫比亞大學心理學家Betsy Sparrow發表在最近一期(7/14)「科學」雜誌中的研究指出，Google這類網際網路搜尋引擎的興起，已經改變人腦記憶資訊的方式。


Sparrow表示，因為搜尋引擎的出現，現在人類大腦對於依賴網際網路來記憶的程度，就與我們依賴朋友、家人、和同事一樣。我們比較不會透過知道訊息本身來記憶，而是透過知道此訊息是從哪裡找到的來記住事情。


此研究顯示，我們容易忘記那些我們相信能夠輕易在網路上找到的訊息，而對於不易在網路上取得的資訊記憶較深。同時，我們也更能夠記得在哪裡找得到訊息，而不是記住資訊本身的內容。


Sparrow解釋說，網際網路已成為心理學家稱之為「交換記憶」（transactive memory）的一種主要形式，這是指當我們知道何時以及如何存取訊息時，記憶可透過外部協助完成。


瞭解搜尋引擎對於人類記憶的影響，有可能改變目前教學和各種領域的學習方式。她說，不管是學校教授或企業主管，都會因此更專注於傳授想法與思考模式，而不是要求記誦。而對學生來說，大腦就不會被一堆資訊佔據，而是更投入瞭解更廣泛的概念與問題。」


Google是否會讓人變笨的這個議題，之前亦曾引發過討論。早在2008年時，知名科技學者Nicholas Carr就曾認為，大量依賴Google查詢資料，讓人們失去深思與專心的能力，廣泛的收集各種訊息，讓現代人的智慧變得膚淺與功利主義。不過，後來的一項網路使用者調查研究指出，大部分的使用者都認為網際網路會讓人變得更聰明，不會變笨。


Sparrow的這項研究並未暗示Google是否影響人類智慧，但確實指出，Google已使人們在尋找資訊的行為上變得更為複雜。這未嘗不是好事，因為我們可以不用再費力背誦一些隨手可得的訊息，而將大腦用在更有創造力的事務上。


The access to data anytime, anywhere, through search engines like Google, is taking an effect on human memory, according to a new study, ultimately altering the way the brain functions.


With so much information available, there is less need to remember everything, especially with tools like Google allowing us find what we need quickly. The result -- the Internet becomes an "external memory" for humans.


At least that's what the study "Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips" says.


Published by Betsy Sparrow, Jenny Liu, and Daniel M. Wegner, on the Web site of Science Magazine, the authors performed a number of experiments into how the human brain uses memory differently when computers are involved.


"The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger," the report says. "No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want. We can 'Google' the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue."


As an example, about 60 Harvard students were asked to type 40 pieces of trivia, such as "An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain," into computers, and were told either the information would be saved or erased.


People who believed the data would be saved were less likely to remember, according to the study published online by the journal Science.


"The results of four studies suggest that when faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers and that when people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves."


The research also found that people are primed to look to the Internet first for knowledge.


Another experiment, run on 34 undergraduates at Columbia University in New York, showed that people remembered where they stored their information better than they were able to recall the information itself.


"We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools, growing into interconnected systems," the authors wrote in the paper. "We have become dependent on them to the same degree we are on all the knowledge we gain from our friends and coworkers -- and lose if they are out of touch."


It isn't clear what the effects of being so "wired" will have on people over time, the authors, led by Betsy Sparrow of Columbia, wrote


But it suggests that the use of search engines is causing our brains to reorganize where it goes for information, adapting to new computing technologies rather than relying solely on rote memory.


Another experiment sought to determine whether computer accessibility affected exactly what we remember.


"If asked the question whether there are any countries with only one color in their flag, for example," the researchers wrote, "do we think about flags, or immediately think to go online to find out?"


As further experiment the participants were asked not only to remember the trivia statement itself, but which of five computer folders it was saved in.


The answer surprised the researchers: People were better able to recall the folder.


"That kind of blew my mind," Sparrow said in an interview.


Experts call this "transactive memory." Essentially, remembering where you can get the information and not the information itself.


"Our brains rely on the Internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member, or co-worker," Sparrow said. "We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.


"I love watching baseball," Sparrow said in example of transactive memory. "But I know my husband knows baseball facts, so when I want to know something I ask him, and I don't bother to remember it."


The Internet's effects on memory are still unexplored territory, Sparrow said, but added that her experiments have led her to this conclusion: Internet has become our primary external storage system.


"Human memory," she said, "is adapting to new communications technology."


原文摘与：研究：Google改變人腦的記憶方式
Original Post: Google Effect: Changes to our Brains