New research suggests the Internet is changing our memory. Researchers from Colombia University presented people with different questions and found many began to think of computers. Lead researcher Dr Betsy Sparrow said that when test participants knew the answers would be available on a computer, they did less well on the memory tests. She said we use the Internet as a new “transactive memory”. We rely on this to do the remembering for us. It’s similar to our personal data being backed up on a hard disk. The Internet acts as a huge storage device for all the world's knowledge, that is there when we need it. Dr Sparrow said computers were not making us less intelligent. “I don't think Google is making us stupid. We're just changing the way that we're remembering things,” she said.
新研究表明互聯(lián)網(wǎng)改變記憶方式。來自哥倫比亞大學的研究人員對受試者進行提問,發(fā)現(xiàn)許多人在面對問題時首先想到求助電腦。研究主任貝特西·斯帕羅教授認為,當他們得知能夠在網(wǎng)上找到答案時,記憶水平測試就會降低。她認為我們將互聯(lián)網(wǎng)看成是新“交互記憶”。我們依靠它來幫助記憶。這就好比是存入個人資料的硬盤。當我們需要求助時,互聯(lián)網(wǎng)就是知識的“存儲器”。斯帕羅教授認為電腦不會讓我們變傻。她認為:“我不認為“谷歌”會讓我們變笨。我們只是換了一種記憶方式而已。”
Dr Sparrow believes we are becoming very good at remembering where we keep information in different folders on our computers. She said: "This suggests that for the things we can find online, we tend to keep it online as far as memory is concerned, we keep it externally stored." She explained that because we are remembering the location of the information, rather than the information itself, we are becoming better at organising huge quantities of data and facts in a more accessible way. She also said the way we use technology is changing our need to remember things, saying: “If you can find stuff online even while you're walking down the street these days, then the skill to have, the thing to remember, is where to go to find the information."
斯帕羅教授認為人們擅長記憶電腦文件夾。她認為;“這意味著對于能夠從網(wǎng)上找到的信息,我們會將記憶保留在網(wǎng)上,讓外界幫助存儲。”她解釋道人們更擅長記憶信息的存儲地,而不是信息本身,我們更擅長有組織地歸納大量信息。她認為現(xiàn)代技術(shù)改變了我們對記憶的需求,稱:“人們即使外出散步也能夠上網(wǎng)查閱信息,人們只需要記住在哪查就行。”