Student Learning Struggles: Is Digital Amnesia to Blame?
By Sammie Koshenina
Has Google become your new best friend as you mostly rely on search engines to find answers to your schoolwork? If it has, you may find that you are having trouble remembering material being taught in class. When you use search engines to find answers you are less likely to remember the information later on; this problem is called digital amnesia. Digital amnesia is similar to the more researched term, the Google effect. It is where you become dependent on search engines, like Google, to answer your questions. However, finding information this way often creates a false sense of knowledge rather than actual memories you can rely on later. Effectiviology.com, in an article about digital amnesia and the Google effect, describes that it is much easier to remember where you store your information than remembering the information itself. Therefore, when you have a question, your first thought is to search it up on the internet. A vicious cycle is created as you rely on knowledge access from a machine and not your own memory.
It is possible that the rise of online learning during the pandemic has reinforced the practice of looking up material being taught in courses. Although teachers have worked very hard to accommodate students, it may be the case that students with less consistent access to teachers more often turn to a search engine to fill in learning gaps. Many of my college peers have discussed this trend in their academic lives.
Researchers Kahn and Martinez explain how we use search engines like they’re our memory partners. When you work with others on a school project, you don’t have to remember the information that your partner has to obtain. That would be silly. You primarily focus on your own part of the project. They explain that when you have future access to information you are more likely to forget it. In this school project example, there is no need to learn and store your partner’s work in your memory. So even if you were told their information, you wouldn’t store it because you know your partner will already know the information.
Would you rely on other sources for information if it was easier than relying on your own knowledge? People love shortcuts to things, so I am assuming you may answer, “yes.” Like relying on a partner for a school project, we rely on a search engine being there all of the time. During a test or quiz we no longer have our “google buddy” to access information. If we have relied on it and NOT our own knowledge, then learning has not occurred. Students make the mistake that learning has occurred often and in other ways. Take studying for example. Students often read and re-read their notes as a preferred form of studying. If this method is used come test time the student often is unable to retrieve the information they “studied” from long-term memory. Just like “looking” something up on Google, reading notes does not ensure any learning has taken place. Reading is often passive, like looking something up on a search engine. It goes in one ear and out the other — so to speak! The way be sure you are learning to remember is to force retrieval. You can do this by asking yourself a question about the material or explaining a concept to a friend or in the margins of your notes.
Effective learning requires combating digital learning AND ineffective study habits at the same time.
Digital amnesia is commonly tested by giving individuals a series of knowledge facts. Half of the individuals are told that the facts will be saved and can be accessed by them later and the other half is told to remember the knowledge themselves. Research has demonstrated that students forget most of the facts they were told when they believe the knowledge will be available later. Those who have to rely on their own memories remember more.
Again, smart learning is at play when you need to remember something. One strategy I like is called dual-coding. It is when you use both visual (how something looks) and verbal (words and ideas) information to remember. Elaboration is when you use multiple ideas and cues to remember. The more visually vivid and verbally distinct you make to-be-learned information, the more likely you are to remember it later. This may help you become less dependent on search engines. In a Psychology Today blog Dr. Nicolas Davidenko suggests that even when we try to encode specific information, we still can forget some of the information if it is not relevant. Which is why sometimes, we must use other sources. I should also add that we shouldn’t feel bad about using the internet. In the digital information age we have access to more information than we could ever want or need. Just make sure to ask yourself if you’d like to remember what you have looked up. If you do, be sure to use memory strategies too.
References
Davidenko, N. (2020, June). Instant Amnesia. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/illusions-delusions-and-reality/202006/instant-amnesia
The Google Effect and Digital Amnesia: How We Use Machines to Remember. Effectiviology. https://effectiviology.com/the-google-effect-and-digital-amnesia/
Kahn, A., & Martinez, T. (2020). Text and you might miss it? Snap and you might remember? Exploring “Google effects on memory” and cognitive self-esteem in the context of Snapchat and text messaging. Computers in Human Behavior, 104, 106-166–.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.106166