← All claims
Supported · Abstract reviewed
Expected access to external digital information changes memory strategy, reducing memory for content while preserving where it can be found.
Claim statusSupported
Evidence strength90
AI assessment confidence91
Human review statusNo human review
Plain-language explanation
Controlled experiments and a broader cognitive-offloading framework converge on a shift from internal storage toward external-location memory.
Supporting evidence
- Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips
Participants remembered less content when future access was expected and remembered its location better.
- Evidence strength
- 92
- AI assessment confidence
- 93
- Method
- Four controlled experiments on transactive memory.
- Source scope
- title and abstract
- AI provenance
- codex-research-curation · initial-curation-v1
- Human review status
- No human review
Qualifying evidence
No public evidence in this category.
Contradicting evidence
No public evidence in this category.
Contextual evidence
- Cognitive Offloading
The cognitive-offloading framework explains why people move processing or storage demands into reliable external aids.
- Evidence strength
- 88
- AI assessment confidence
- 91
- Method
- Conceptual review integrating memory, perception, and problem solving.
- Source scope
- title and abstract
- AI provenance
- codex-research-curation · initial-curation-v1
- Human review status
- No human review