ИСТИНА

Abstract: The Google effect is an effect of not remembering information that was delegated to the computer for storage in a situation where the respondent is confident that the information can be found by accessing a known directory (folder on the computer) or a search engine. We assumed that respondents who were primed that the information would be deleted from the computer would recall a greater number of presented scientific facts during immediate and delayed reproducing and recognition. The experiment involved 46 students from different fields of study (32 women, 14 men). The average age of the participants was 19 years. They were asked to memorize 40 scientific facts, which they were to retype and either press the “Enter” key to save it on the computer, or erase what they had typed and move on to the next trial. Subsequently, after an interference task, the subjects were asked to reproduce what they remembered or recognize statements in a recognition test. The second test was conducted weeks later and included only a recognition test. The presentation of facts was randomized and was performed using the PsychoPy platform. The results were processed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 software package. The results demonstrated the presence of the Google effect. Subjects who believed that the information would be deleted from the device recalled more facts than those who received instructions that the facts would be saved immediately (t=-2.515, p<0.05). In the recognition test, the Google effect was demonstrated only in the delayed testing (t=-2.118, p<0.05). These data indicate that the Google effect mechanisms are coupled with a special saving-information mindset that presupposes remembering the source of information but not the information itself. However, this mindset is auxiliary and does not fully control the process of memorization.