IB Psychology - Cognitive Approach - HL digital technology

Digital Technology and overall positive and negative effects of digital technology

Digital tech is refers to "electronic tools, systems, devices and resources that generate, store or process data". Examples, search engines, video games, computers, social media.

Tech like video gaming can improve visual memory, attention span, task-switching, multitasking, decision making, hand-eye coordination.

However,

Tech like search engines or phones or social media can lead to distraction, lowered attention span, social isolation, scattered thinking, lowered analysis.

Technology and memory study

Sparrow et al

Aimed to see how search engines affect memory. (They saw search engines as an external memory source that is always accessible when memory is needed)

They showed participants small facts and asked participants to type these facts on a computer. They told half the participants that the information would be saved and the other half that their information would be lost. They were then asked to recall as many statements as they could.

Results showed that those who believed the information would be lost recalled more of the facts than those who believed it would be saved.

Conclusion was that participants clearly relied on the computer to store it so that they themselves didn't have to remember. They did not remember the information, but they knew that if they needed it, it would be accessible since it was saved, so they were less likely to remember it.

Evaluation

-No participant or demand characteristics

-All other factors kept controlled so cause and effect relationship was established

- low external validity bc depends on age groups, maybe older people wouldnt have had much difference

Technology and Visual Working Memory

Blacker et al.

Aimed to test whether video games could expand the capacity of VWM, which is basically holding visuals in your mind after that information is not present.

40 young males were split into two groups and made to play video games, either call of duty or sims for one hour a day for a month. After this, their VWM was tested.

Results showed that those who played the action games showed significant improvement on VWM capacity than those who played the control game.

Conclusion was that exposure to more rich visual environments over a long period of time was like a form of training to extend capacity of VWM.

Evaluation

- internal validity

- only one hour a day, could have been doing other things

- only young males tested, low external validity

- small population size

- researcher bias

- didn't mention other effects, possibly negative