A reader shifts from the computer to the phone:
Regarding Google and memory, I am probably not alone in seeing what having a "contact list" on my cell phone has done to my ability to memorize phone numbers. I dare say that the only phone numbers I have memorized are my own, and my parents, a number I memorized long before I ever had a cell phone. I don't even know my wife's cell phone number by heart. I simply rely on the fact that it can always be found on my phone.
This turned out to be quite a problem after an unfortunate arrest. The police allowed me a phone call (after confiscating my cell phone), and to my horror, I realized I didn't know anyone's number!
Although, it should be noted that this problem is also due to the fact that I never have to actually type in anyone's number. I merely scroll over a name and press a button. This lack of repeatedly dialing a number by hand removes the affect of "muscle memory" from the memory process. As any musician or athlete can tell you, repeating physical motions can lead to muscles recalling information (such as where to place your fingers to form a cord on a guitar) without the need of conscious thought.
Both of these reasons are why, as an educator, I refuse to lecture with PowerPoint. Forcing the students to write lecture notes by hand, and removing the option of relying on a digital file to recall information forces the students to better internalize the subject matter through both mental and muscle memorization. It is also the reason many educators have recently come out against the removal of learning cursive in school.
The Dish covered cursive over the weekend. A final reader reinforces an earlier point:
I recently read Joshua Foer's "Moonwalking with Einstein", which has some salient discussion. Foer describes a classical model of reading that was highly intensive: People would have one or two books, such as the Bible, that they read and studied until the text was memorized. Book memorization was a signification use of the memory palace techniques, and the actual text was often regarded as a memory aid. With the introduction of print, people shifted to an increasingly extensive mode of reading, so most people now read hundreds of books that they scarcely remember the details of.
All the handwringing about the Internet promoting skimming instead of deep reading, or external memories, is just a reaction to the natural extension of a process that has been going on for centuries.
The Dish 