Serge: Here's a cite for some background info. The work is theoretical. Check Merlin Donald, "The Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition." Harvard University Press, 1991. Donald sees such memory devices as you mention below as "exended memory" in which we hold the treasures of all of our cognitive development and heritage. This is different than impairing our memory. Rather it's more akin, in my perspective, to the lines of thinking of Vannavar Bush and the Memex device that he conceived to free up the higher thinking processes from mundane tasks. Rita Lauria, Ph.D. Assoc. Professor; Print & New Media Dept. of Journalism & Mass Comm NC A & T State University 1601 East Market Street Greensboro, NC 27411 336.334.7900 Research Associate Media Interface & Network Design Labs http://www.mindlabs.org ----- Original Message ----- From: "Serge Courrier" <serge.courrier@pobox.com> To: <air-l@aoir.org> Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003 8:29 AM Subject: [Air-l] Impact of intense technology use on memorization's quality Hi, Ones could think that the intense use of technology could lead to a impairment of our memory. Immediate information finding through Web queries, automatic calendar alerts via PDA, telephone numbers memorized by cellular phones, access routes computed by GPS, and so on. Do you know if anybody published a study or an article about this subject. And what do YOU think about it ? Best regards _________________________________________ Serge Courrier Scientific journalist, Paris, France _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l