Does Google Help Students Learn (or Just Think They Do)?

There's no question that in the era of the smartphone, the Internet has become a go-to place to find out something in a hurry, but does "outsourcing your memory" actually help students learn new concepts, or does it just make people think they are smarter than they are?

Does Google make people think they are smarter than they are?

At the annual Association for Psychological Science conference in a symposium on the effects of students' online searches, several studies looked at how using the Internet affects both the way we remember and the way we think about what we learn.

Now lets think about statistics. How many students (%): Looked for a quick answer Sought in depth information on a topic Were simply browsing

Analyzing about 900 college students' search habits, Adrian F. Ward of the University of Colorado, Boulder, found 59 percent looked for a "quick answer," 26 percent sought "in-depth information" on a topic, and another 15 percent were simply browsing. Even when students knew the answer to a question, they were likely to check the Internet before answering. "There's a sense that it's in there somewhere but it's easier to pull out your phone than think about it," Ward said.

Questions: 1. In the era of the Internet do children need or have to trust their parents answers? 2. Would you trust being a child? 3. In your opinion who do children trust more: their parents or an answer from a computer?

In one study, University of Louisville psychologists Nicholaus S. Noles and Judith H. Danovitch found that 4- and 5-year-olds are more likely to turn to adults for the answer to a question than a computer, while adults are more likely to seek the answer electronically. Interestingly, 8-year-olds turn to computers more than younger children, but less than adults. However, 5- and 8-year-olds are more likely to trust an answer from a computer if it conflicts with a person's response.

Does using the Internet can improve your memory?

In a separate study, researchers asked students to answer 30 difficult questions about unfamiliar animals, like "What do red pandas do with their tails?" or "What color are rockhopper penguins' eyes?" Half of the students had access to the National Geographic website to look up answers they didn't know, while the other half used a National Geographic animal-facts booklet with the same information. After answering the questions, the students were asked how many facts they expected to remember in five minutes, one day, and one week. Half of the students in each group were tested on the questions later that day, while half were tested after 24 hours. In all cases, the students thought they would forget more than they actually did, but those who had looked up information remembered significantly more after a day than those who sought information in print. There was no difference in the verbal or nonverbal intelligence scores of students in either group.

What does this quotation mean? "College students may be more comfortable acquiring information from the Internet than books. With older adults who are less familiar with the Internet, we might get different results," Danovitch said.