Discuss positive and negative effects of modern technology on cognitive processes

Question 1

How has technology developed in the last century?

Answer 1

Technology has evolved enormously in the last century from computers for learning and working to video games for entertainment.

Question 2

What have psychologists been asking?

Answer 2

With all of this change, psychologists have been asking whether all of this technology is good for us or not and therefore both positive and negative effects have been the subject of research.

Question 3

Positive side of technology

Answer 3

On the positive side, some argue digital technology can enhance cognitive functioning

For example, video gaming can improve perception, mental rotation skills, visual memory, attention, task-switching, multi-tasking and decision-making.

Question 4

Negative side of technology

Answer 4

On the negative side, some contend that digital technology can lead to distraction, reduced attention spans, a sense of social isolation, scattered thinking and a decline in the ability to think analytically

Question 5

What cognitive process has been the focus of several investigation how the effect of technology?

Answer 5

Memory

Question 6

First example of technology effect on memory

Answer 6

Search engines

Question 7

Study on search engines

Answer 7

Sparrow et al

Question 8

Aim of Sparrow et al

Answer 8

Were interested in how search engines might affect memory

Question 9

What did Sparrow et al liken search engines to?

Answer 9

External memory sources accessible when information is needed.

In this way, digital technology is changing the way information is stored.

You may not remember the information, but you do know where you can find that information when necessary.

Question 10

What were Sparrow et al confident about?

Answer 10

Were confident that memory is adapting to new computing and communication technology and they reached this conclusion after a series of experiments.

Question 11

Procedure of Sparrow

Answer 11

The researchers showed participants trivial pieces of information, for example ‘an ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain’.

These statements were then typed into a computer by the participants.

Half the participants believed what they typed would be saved while the other half were informed the information would be lost.

Question 12

Results of Sparrow

Answer 12

Participants who believed the information would be lost recalled more statements than the participants who were told that the information would be saved.

Question 13

Additional experiment from Sparrow

Answer 13

Additional experiments followed the same set of procedures but this time the computer responded either by saying ‘Your entry has been saved’, ‘Your entry has been erased’ or ‘Your entry has been saved to…’ followed by a folder name.

Each person was then shown a list of statements and asked two questions: ‘Have you seen this fact before?’, ‘Was this fact saved or deleted?’ or ‘Where was this fact saved?

Question 14

Result of second experiment from Sparrow

Answer 14

When a fact had been flagged as one that the computer erased, participants had a better memory of the fact itself.

However, when the computer told them that the fact had been saved and where it had been saved, they more accurately remembered that it had been saved and where it had been saved compared to remembering the fact itself.

Question 15

Conclusion of Sparrow

Answer 15

Based on these results the researchers challenged simplistic arguments that digital technology is detrimental to cognitive processes like memory.

Question 16

Arguments made by Sparrow’s research

Answer 16

Some people argue that knowing where to find information, which is almost immediate with a digital device in our hands, critically evaluating that information, and then using the information in an analytical process is better than having a basic memory of the information.

Especially in a learning context, higher order thinking skills can be developed sooner with outsourcing some factual knowledge to ‘search engines’ because the testing of regurgitated factual information takes away time from developing higher order thinking skills.

However, others argue that this dependency on technology is what is detrimental to our memory as if we lost the technology then we would not be able to obtain the information at all.

Question 17

Issue with Sparrow

Answer 17

An issue with the study is that the tasks had low ecological validity as in addition to knowing that they were part of an experiment, the information that they were being exposed to was of limited value or interest to the students.

Research shows that we tend to remember information that we process deeply and that is of personal relevance.

Neither of these two variables was measured in these studies.

In addition, it is highly possible that there were demand characteristics and that the aim of the research was figured out by participants reducing the validity of the findings.

Question 18

Study that further supports Sparrow

Answer 18

Kaspersky Lab

Question 19

What term did they use to describe the process found in Sparrow et al?

Answer 19

Digital amnesia

Question 20

Procedure of Kaspersky Lab

Answer 20

They conducted a survey to find more about it. They conducted an internet survey consumers.

Participants were asked to recall important telephone numbers.

They were also asked how and where they stored information they located online.

Question 21

Results of Kaspersky Lab

Answer 21

The results were that more than half of adult consumers could recall their home phone number, and that parents could recall their children’s phone numbers and their work phone number.

One in three participants reported they were happy to forget or risk forgetting information they can find online.

The study also found that a third of participants reported that they would turn to the internet before trying to remember information and a quarter reported they would forget an online fact as soon as they had used it.

The results were consistent across male and female respondents but higher rates of amnesia were prevalent in older age groups.

Question 22

Conclusion of Kaspersky Lab

Answer 22

The overall conclusion of the study was that connected devices enrich lives but they can result in digital amnesia.

Question 23

Argument that can be made on Kaspersky Lab

Answer 23

The study puts into question how we can determine whether something is beneficial as, is whether the person themselves are happy with the effect, or is it up to psychologists to determine whether it is a good thing to happen.

It therefore puts into question whether the benefits are actually relative to each individual’s perception of it. In this case as the majority were unhappy that they were forgetting information and therefore we could argue that this means that technology has a negative effect as it is not what the majority of people want to occur.

Question 24

Evaluation of Kaspersky Lab

Answer 24

A strength of the study is that it had a large sample size and therefore makes the results reliable

However, the study was based on survey by participants and therefore lack reliability as the participants could show social desirability bias which would affect their response.

Question 25

Other aspect that psychologists have researched to find its effect on memory

Answer 25

Video games and how it affects children and adolescents.

Question 26

Argument about video games

Answer 26

This topic remains a contested and unresolved issue.

Those who oppose video games argue they increase aggressive behaviour, bring social isolation and teach antisocial values. In addition, excessive video-gaming can adversely affect academic performance and lead to poor health.

Question 27

Positive argument on video games

Answer 27

Others argue video gaming can improve cognitive functions including memory, spatial skills, pattern recognition, analysis and decision-making.

No conclusion has yet emerged from the psychological research.

Question 28

Research on video games

Answer 28

Blacker et al.

Question 29

What did Blacker theorise?

Answer 29

Theorised that games could expand the capacity of the visual working memory and argues that technology can have a positive impact on memory.

Question 30

Procedure of Blacker et al

Answer 30

In the experiment participants either played an action video game or a more relaxed video game.

Question 31

Results of Blacker et al

Answer 31

Individuals who played on an action game showed significant improvement on measures of VWM capacity compared with those who played the control game.

Question 32

Conclusion of Blacker et al

Answer 32

The investigators concluded that exposure to rich visual environments over an extensive period is a distinctive form of training that may allow individuals to extend the capacity of VWM

Therefore shows technology as positive

Question 33

Who does not believe video games being positive?

Answer 33

Small and Vorgan (2008) believe.

Question 34

Evaluation of Blacker et al

Answer 34

A key strength of the study is that the researchers thought of the possible confounding variables that might affect the results.

This was done by measuring motivation and enjoyment, which were equal in both groups, and therefore could be excluded as confounding variables that may have affected the improvement in VWM.

However, this was a very small all male volunteer sample that cannot be seen as representative of any population.

Question 35

Conclusion of technology on memory

Answer 35

Technology appears to be quite beneficial for the person itself as it helps them to no longer rely on their own memory.

However, a key issue of technology is that there is strong evidence for digital amnesia which in terms of the participants’ cognition is very negative but technology has helped them to no longer rely on their cognition.

Therefore, it is debatable and based on perspectives on whether technology is good or bad for participants.

Video games on the other hand do appear to improve memory and cognition for the visual working memory and therefore it is important to see that certain technology can help with cognition.

However, it is difficult to give a complete and conclusive answer as technology and cognition are both very broad that we cannot generalise the findings found from this research to the whole of the effect of technology on cognition.