任务型阅读
Is Your Memory Online?
If
you are trying to find out who invented the microscope, do you ask a friend, go
to the library, or look it up online? These days, most people will look it up
online with a quick Internet search. "Just Google it", people say,
using the name of the popular Internet search engine. As Internet users become
more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remembering
less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own
personal memory? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we
remember and how.
In
recent study, psychologist Betsy Sparrow of Columbia University conducted some
experiments. She and her team wanted to know how the Internet is changing
memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type
into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would
save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not
save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in
the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try
to remember it.
In
the second experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember. In
addition, the researchers told them where to find the information on the
computer. The information was in a specific computer folder. Surprisingly,
people later remembered the folder location better than the facts. When people
use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather they remember
how to find it.
This
is called "transactive memory". We remember where to find the
information, but we don't remember the information. Before the Internet, we
used transactive memory to remember which person or book had the information we
needed. Now, we just have to remember where it is stored on the Internet.
According
to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the
Internet. Instead, we are learning how to organize huge quantities of
information so that we are able to access it at a later date. This doesn't mean
we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the
way we use memory is changing.
(1)
Why
did Sparrow and her team make the experiments?
(2)
What
was the result of the second experiment?
(3)
Would
you please give an example of transactive memory?
(4)
What
do you think of the fact that the way we use memory is changing? Why?(about 40
words)
答案: Sparrow and her team made the experiments in order to find out how the Internet is changing memory.
The result of the second experiment was that people remember the location of the information rather than the information itself.
For example, we don't want to remember the information by ourselves. Instead, we'd like to remember the person who knows the information and ask him for it when we need the information.
(1) I think it good to change the way we use our memory. With the help of the Internet, we are learning how to organize huge quantities of information. We can store and use more information, which will surely broaden our view and improve work efficiency. So I think it's a good thing. (2) I don't think it is a good thing to change the way we use our memory. It will make us rely too much on the Internet. Once there is a problem with it, we will be a loss of much information that should have been stored in our mind. So I don't think that's a good thing.