The Internet as a Forget-Cue: The Effect of Assumptions About Future Accessibility of Information from the Internet on Memory

Yitong Zhu

【Abstract】There is a previous study motivate us： The effects of technology on individuals. This research investigates in how does transactive memory will be influenced by technology. This study attempted to answer the question： While people are given a forgetting cue （prior to the list of information） which suggests that they will have access through internet later， how will people perform in both condition： with or without forgetting cue？  We have tested people in two trails of tests， and used Qualtrics Survey software to construct memory recall test. SPSS 20.0 was used to analysis our data. The result shows that there is significant difference between with or without internet as forget-cue and number recalled items from memory recall test. Our research shows when people believe internet as a reliable external memory storage， people will not attend to the information when receive internet as forgetting cue. which suggests that people need to be more aware， since the decision to use technology as an external memory storage happens mostly when people are not aware of it.

【Key words】Forget-Cue; Assumptions; Future Accessibility

【作者簡介】Yitong Zhu， University of Minnesota.

【基金项目】INTERNET AS A FORGETTING CUE.

1. Introduction 

The rapid technological and informational development has radically altered the way people work， rest， and communicate. In particular， the researchers argue that technologies significantly boost peoples multitasking skills， but unlike expected， peoples memories are easily affected by irrelevant environments （Howard-Jones， 2011， p. 27）.

Based on past researches， Sparrow et al. （2011） studied how individuals trust to access information from the Internet and they examined whether the subjects memory of the information depended on expectations. In experiments between the two groups， subjects were assigned to “save” or “erase” conditions. And the two groups were divided into one group to be informed that the information will be erased later， while the other group was not informed. The task of all groups is to remember information and then recall it. Researchers have found that people who dont know the information will be erased later performed worse than those who know. which indicated that if a person does not believe that they need information later， they will not put effort to store it.

Thus， based on the experiments mentioned above， to investigate our experiment， subjects will participant in two trails of memory recall test. At this point， the first test informed that there will be a recall task after the learning session. However， in the second test， we deceive our participants that they will be tested on how fast they can use internet to answer questions and they will be given a forgetting cue before the presentation of information items. After the learning session， all subjects will be tested to see how much of the information can be recalled， both without internet access. The data will then be compared within the two groups. We are going to use repeated measure.

By examining the research done be Sparrow et al. （2011）. The results reflected the understanding of memory， especially directed memory. Bjork （1970a）s study showed that when people think it is alright to be forgotten， they are less likely to recall items.

2. Method 

Study participants

We recruited 64 participants from University of Minnesota， and all the participants have been informed with the principles expressed in the Helsinki Declaration. A power analysis indicated that 21 participants were effective and reliable for our experiment. The participants age range is from 18 to 21， and one participants age is unidentified. （n =21; 11Women， 10Men; MAge =20.05， SD=1.14）.

3. procedure 

We have created two memory recall tests in a form of questionnaire. We used Qualtrics Survey Software to construct the memory recall tests. we divide information items into two groups （list A， list B）.  In order to avoid error brought by the differences between two list， list A and list B have been exchanged during the experiment （for counter balancing）. Each list contained 10 information items. The information items of both lists are easily to understand and short. To ensure the validity and reliability of the data， we pretested 10 students. By using Spss 20.0 we calculate both reliability and validity of this questionnaire are above 85%. The data were analyzed for statistical significance using the paired depended t-test.

Our questionnaire beginning with information consent and detail summery of our experiment. And they were asked to provide their age and gender. If the consent was given， the participant would be brought to the first memory recall test page. On that page， we have provided 10 information items to participants. After viewing all the information items， they would have 3 minutes to recall the information. The next half of questionnaire， participants were told that they are going to be test on how fast they can find answers through internet. All the participants will be present 10 information items， each item will appear on screen for 5 seconds. After the presentation of all the items， there will be a recall test for 3 minutes.

After all the data was collected， the free recall answers were encoded as accuracy. Each item was coded as （1） accurately remembered （all major components of the information item were there.）. （2） partially accurate （item missing some key components or partially incorrect）. （3） not recalled. Then we recorded the number of items （1） and （2） for each participant.

4. Result

Analysis showed that the recalled items in memory test without forgetting cue （M =5.33， SD =1.74） is significantly higher than the condition with forgetting cue （M =3.33， SD =2.03）， t（20） = 3.392， p<0.05. （see figure 1）. Controlling for individuals who took less than 5 sec， the similar result was obtained t（15） =5.492， p=0.001. The correlation of paired samples （N =21， Correlation= -0.019， p =0.935）. Analysis have showed the recalled items in the test which has no forgetting cue （M=5.50， SD=1.32） and the one with the forgetting cue （M=3.44， SD=1.93）. Paired sample t-test has showed that there is significant difference in memory recall test between with and without forgetting cue.

5. Discussion

This research investigates to whether peoples memories are affected by technology. In this study， all subjects did not have access to any technology and networks， except that they were tested using a computer. In test A （no forgetting cue）， the subjects recalled information is significantly higher than test B （with forgetting cue）. This shows that when people receive instructions that they will have internet access later which would be treated as a forgetting cue. Thus， people would forget most of them or even all of the information appears later. As Sparrow et al. （2011） pointed out that due to the development of modern networks and technologies， when people cant recall the content of information， they can accurately remember where to find out the information.

As mentioned in result， we analyzed the subjects recall tendency. But the result is not followed by the serial position effect. The serial position effect is the effect when people are asked to free recall a list of items， they tend to recall the first and last items in a serial of position， and the middle part tend to be worse recalled. （Murdock， 1962）. Which refers to recall accuracy varies as the position of each item in the study list. In our study， the tendency of recalled words from the subjects shows the higher accuracy in the first and last items in both conditions （with or without forget-cue）. however， in the middle part， the number of information items that people remember is constantly fluctuating.

Due to human trust in the network and technology， we spontaneously regard the network as our external memory. This study shows that human will spontaneous choose to forget information when they see the forgetting cue. Thus， we suggest that when people want to remember some important， they need to be more aware if they want to remember it. information， they should be more aware of it.

References：

[1]Howard-Jones， P. The impact of digital technologies on human well-being[OL]. Oxford： Nominet Trust. Retrieved from https：//static.lgfl.net/LgflNet/downloads/online-safety/LGfL-OS-Research-Archive-2011-Nominet-Impact-on-Wellbeing.pdf，2011：1-98.

[2]Sparrow， B.， Liu， J.， & Wegner， D. M. Google effects on memory： Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips[J]. Science，333：776-778.

[3]Wegner， D. M.， Erber， A.， & Raymond， P. Transactive memory in close relationships[J]. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology， 1991，61：923-929.

[4]Bjork， R. A. Positive forgetting： The noninterference of items intentionally forgotten[J]. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior，9：255-268.