Google effect

The tendency to remember information less well when people expect it to remain available through internet search engines. It is a form of transactive memory, in which people rely on external sources as part of their memory system.

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Transactive memory: A shared memory system in which people remember information and who or what can supply it. The Google effect extends this idea to search engines as external stores of knowledge.
Betsy Sparrow: A psychologist whose research examines memory, attention, and the effects of digital technology. She led the 2011 study that named and tested the Google effect.
Digital literacy: The ability to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information using digital technologies. Knowing how to retrieve information can matter more than memorizing every searchable fact.
Memory palace: A mnemonic technique that uses imagined spatial locations to organize and recall information. Unlike search reliance, it strengthens internal retrieval through deliberate encoding.
Cognitive offloading: The use of external actions or tools to reduce the mental effort required for a task. Expecting to search later can offload the work of retaining details.
Jenny Liu: A researcher who coauthored the 2011 study of the Google effect. Her experiments helped establish how computer access affected recall and memory for locations.
Information literacy: The ability to recognize information needs and locate, evaluate, and use information effectively. Search reliance makes judging the quality and provenance of retrieved material essential.
Testing effect: The improvement in long-term retention that comes from retrieving information through testing. Retrieval practice strengthens memory, whereas expected external access can reduce encoding effort.
Source memory: Memory for where, when, or how information was learned. People may retain where information can be found even when its content is less memorable.
Daniel M. Wegner: A social psychologist known for research on transactive memory and thought suppression. His theory of transactive memory supplied a framework for interpreting reliance on computers.