Ever look up the name of the actor in that movie and forget who it was when asked again just a few hours later? This type of recall (or lack thereof) is happening more frequently. A new study in Science (Sparrow et. al. vol 333: 776) demonstrates that we are actually relying on the internet as an external memory source.

If we know we can just look up the info again, we don’t remember the info but rather remember where we found it or where we saved it. However, if we think the info is erased, we are more likely to recall the info correctly.

Who was that again? Oh, right, I saved it in the news folder.