Fix It Dr. Sikorski Wants to Know If Technology Is Dumbing People

Essay

Fix It
Dr. Sikorski wants to know if technology is dumbing people down. She notices that years ago, before cell phones were widely used, people had to memorize important phone numbers. In thinking about this, she realizes that she remembers her best friend's phone number from high school, but cannot remember her best friend's phone number today. She hypothesizes that our reliance upon technology to store information for us has produced "digital amnesia." To test whether technology impairs memory she the first recruits 30 undergraduates who come to the lab. The participants are given a list of 20 items they must purchase at a grocery store. The names of the items are spoken by the researcher, and the participants' progress through the three treatment conditions-digital, traditional, and control-in the same order. In the digital condition they are told they may make a list of the items using their phone. In the traditional condition they are told they may make a list using a pencil and paper. In the control condition they are not permitted to record the list. After the participants were read the 20 items they were given a distractor task to prevent rehearsal. One minute later they were asked to speak the items they were to purchase. Participants were not permitted to use their notes to recall the items. The study uses a within-subject design. To ensure consistency in the procedure, the same 20 items were used in each condition. t-tests were performed to examine group differences in the mean number of items recalled. The results support Dr. Sikorski's hypothesis. The participants recalled significantly fewer items during the digital condition than in the traditional condition (t(29) = 7.23, p < .05) and the control condition (t(29) = 5.42, p < .05). She also found that fewer items were recalled in the traditional condition than in the control condition (t(29) = 4.28, p < .05). Dr. Sikorski concludes that memory aids, either digital or traditional, are ultimately detrimental to memory.
What do you think of how Dr. Sikorski came up with her research question? What issues do you see with design of this study? Fix them!