Storm et al

Aim

To investigate the reliance on Google for information retrieval.

Sample

Undergraduate volunteers

What type of experiment was it?

Lab

How were participants divided in the study?

Participants were divided into three groups: internet, memory, and baseline.

What did ppts in the Internet group do?

Used Google to answer eight difficult general knowledge questions.

What did ppts in the memory group do?

Answered the same questions from memory

What did ppts in the baseline group do?

Ppts were not asked any questions

What did all ppts answer?

8 easy general questions quickly

What did all ppts have access to?

Google but weren’t instructed to use it

What was measured?

The proportion of questions using Google search

What proportion of answers did the Internet group retrieve using Google?

83% of answers were retrieved on Google.

What proportion of answers did the Memory group retrieve using Google?

63% of answers were relied on Google.

What proportion of answers did the Baseline group retrieve using Google?

65% of answers were obtained through on Google.

What does using internet search engines increase?

The likelihood of future reliance on them

What does it suggest?

The reduce of personal memory for information recall

What does it highlight the effects of?

Technology on cognitive processes

(+) Reliability

Conducted in a lab following a standardised procedure

(-) Low ecological validity

Answering general knowledge questions in a lab is different form everyday knowledge retrieval.