prospect of being able to locate virtually any piece of information by typing a few words on a keyboard.
But before we get carried away with the thought that we are somehow masters of an information age, be warned! In 2011, an article appeared in the journal Science , entitled ‘Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips’. It was authored by Betsy Sparrow, a psychologist at Columbia University, and reflected on the findings of a research project that she had co-led. She wrote:
Since the advent of search engines, we are reorganizing the way we remember things … Our brains rely on the internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member or co-worker. We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.
What her study discovered was that we are far more likely to retain in our memories information that could not easily be found on the internet. However, where information could be retrieved from the web, respondents remembered how they could find that information again (e.g. through typing in a specific web address or search term) rather than the information itself. It is rather like remembering the name of a specific file within a particular filing cabinet, rather than the pertinent information within the file.
In truth, this is not as modern a phenomenon as we might assume. In the fourth century BC, Plato wrote The Phaedrus , in which Socrates is depicted narrating the tale of Thamus, an Egyptian king who hosted the god Theuth, among whose many achievements was said to be the invention of writing. Socrates spoke thus:
You, who are the father of writing, have out of fondness for your offspring attributed to it quite the opposite of its real function. Those who acquire it will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs instead of by their own internal resources. What you have discovered is a receipt for recollection, not for memory.
(TRANSLATED BY WALTER HAMILTON, PENGUIN, 1973)
Quiz 14 – Elementary, dear reader … Part I
Uriah Ingram is chief suspect in the grisly ‘Limehouse Butcher’s Hook Murders’. It is known he is hiding out in a parade of houses on the Commercial Road, though the police do not know exactly which property. There are houses numbered one to ninety-six on the road. The police ask their informant three questions:
Is the number of the house below fifty?
Is the number divisible by three?
Is the number a square number?
The informant’s answers are not recorded but we do know he would only answer exactly what he was asked and refused to divulge any further information. Nonetheless, the investigating officers knew from his answers Ingram’s precise location and promptly arrested the killer. So where was Ingram holed up?
Reading the Signs
‘“I have seen those symptoms before,” said Holmes, throwing his cigarette into the fire. “Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de coeur. ”’
‘A CASE OF IDENTITY’
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of body language in our day-to-day dealings with the world. Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UCLA, argues that there are three major components in face-to-face communication: words, tone of voice and non-verbal communication. Of these, he rates verbal communication as the least important aspect (accounting for seven per cent of communication), then tone of voice (thirty-eight per cent) and, finally, body language (fifty-five per cent).
Body language encompasses gestures, facial expressions (the eyes, it is said, are a window to the soul), the positioning of the body and the proximity between subjects, interaction with objects (e.g. a cigarette or a pen) and even physical signs such as sweating or rate of breathing.
Becoming an adept reader of non-verbal
But before we get carried away with the thought that we are somehow masters of an information age, be warned! In 2011, an article appeared in the journal Science , entitled ‘Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips’. It was authored by Betsy Sparrow, a psychologist at Columbia University, and reflected on the findings of a research project that she had co-led. She wrote:
Since the advent of search engines, we are reorganizing the way we remember things … Our brains rely on the internet for memory in much the same way they rely on the memory of a friend, family member or co-worker. We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.
What her study discovered was that we are far more likely to retain in our memories information that could not easily be found on the internet. However, where information could be retrieved from the web, respondents remembered how they could find that information again (e.g. through typing in a specific web address or search term) rather than the information itself. It is rather like remembering the name of a specific file within a particular filing cabinet, rather than the pertinent information within the file.
In truth, this is not as modern a phenomenon as we might assume. In the fourth century BC, Plato wrote The Phaedrus , in which Socrates is depicted narrating the tale of Thamus, an Egyptian king who hosted the god Theuth, among whose many achievements was said to be the invention of writing. Socrates spoke thus:
You, who are the father of writing, have out of fondness for your offspring attributed to it quite the opposite of its real function. Those who acquire it will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful; they will rely on writing to bring things to their remembrance by external signs instead of by their own internal resources. What you have discovered is a receipt for recollection, not for memory.
(TRANSLATED BY WALTER HAMILTON, PENGUIN, 1973)
Quiz 14 – Elementary, dear reader … Part I
Uriah Ingram is chief suspect in the grisly ‘Limehouse Butcher’s Hook Murders’. It is known he is hiding out in a parade of houses on the Commercial Road, though the police do not know exactly which property. There are houses numbered one to ninety-six on the road. The police ask their informant three questions:
Is the number of the house below fifty?
Is the number divisible by three?
Is the number a square number?
The informant’s answers are not recorded but we do know he would only answer exactly what he was asked and refused to divulge any further information. Nonetheless, the investigating officers knew from his answers Ingram’s precise location and promptly arrested the killer. So where was Ingram holed up?
Reading the Signs
‘“I have seen those symptoms before,” said Holmes, throwing his cigarette into the fire. “Oscillation upon the pavement always means an affaire de coeur. ”’
‘A CASE OF IDENTITY’
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of body language in our day-to-day dealings with the world. Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UCLA, argues that there are three major components in face-to-face communication: words, tone of voice and non-verbal communication. Of these, he rates verbal communication as the least important aspect (accounting for seven per cent of communication), then tone of voice (thirty-eight per cent) and, finally, body language (fifty-five per cent).
Body language encompasses gestures, facial expressions (the eyes, it is said, are a window to the soul), the positioning of the body and the proximity between subjects, interaction with objects (e.g. a cigarette or a pen) and even physical signs such as sweating or rate of breathing.
Becoming an adept reader of non-verbal
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