Summary of "Paper Effect"

In a book called Mind Change by Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield says that individuals who type up facts on a computer have more difficulty remembering those facts than individuals who didn't write them down at all. She calls this the "Google Effect". But Michelle Eskritt and Sierra Ma had a similar study where the participants had to memorize

the locations of certain cards laid out before them. Half the participants wrote down the locations and told they could keep their notes, but instead their notes were taken away. This half of the group actually on average scored lower than the other half that didn't take notes.

These two experiments seem to be proving the same idea, that thinking you will be able to refer

 back to information, but losing or having your notes taken away is worse than not taking 

notes in the first place. It would be interesting to have another group of people taking notes 

(half on a computer and half on paper) who are told that their notes will be taken away. Since

the participants in this experiment were relying on having their notes they did not spend as much

time memorizing the layout. 

Jarrett, C. (n.d.). The "Paper Effect" – Note Something Down And You’re More 

     Likely To Forget It. Retrieved from Wired website: http://www.wired.com/ 

     2014/11/paper-effect-note-something-youre-likely-forget/