WEBVTT - Outsourcing Memory 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:06.040 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:13.440 Works dot com. Hey you wasn't the stuff to Blow 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.560 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie. 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.840 We live in a remarkable age, don't we. We certainly do. 0:00:20.040 --> 0:00:25.599 We certainly do. We have um airplanes, true submarines, we 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:29.680 have satellites in orbit, and we have these amazing little 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.040 devices that we wear on our person at all times 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:38.159 that often feel like, uh, an extension of ourselves, and 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.040 we turn to them when we need to connect with somebody, 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:44.479 when we need to take a photograph of something happening 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:46.840 in our daily life, if we need to fact check something, 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.199 be it you know who starred in Beast Master? Or 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:53.479 I wonder what the name of this friend of a 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:55.480 friend is. What do you do you on Facebook and 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.720 you look for it, or you just need like simple um, 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:02.480 you know, conversions of figures or simple mathematics. What do 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:05.119 you do? You go fleeing to your your smart device? 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.000 Oh oh yes, yes, yes, well it is it is 0:01:09.280 --> 0:01:12.080 the rolodex as well. It's all those things rolled up 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:16.000 into one and this little, uh, this little electronic organ 0:01:16.240 --> 0:01:18.200 that lives in our pocket. I know. And the funny 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:20.800 thing about that is that this question I'm about to 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:25.200 post would be ridiculous ten years ago, but now I 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.920 think it matters. Have you ever tried to recall an 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.480 actual phone number stored in your cell phone? I'm talking 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.959 about a phone number of a close friend or a relative, 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:39.760 and you've come up just with snake eyes. Yes, but 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:44.319 and it was trying. There were times, not recently, but 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.920 like in the first two or three years. Maybe. UM, 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.000 I do remember having that problem where I need to 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:53.920 list my wife's number on something or call her from 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.560 from another phone. And I we weren't married at the time, 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:58.280 but still if she was the person I was talking 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:00.120 to the most on the phone, and I didn't have 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.080 her number memorized yet, so I had to make a 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.680 conscious decision, Okay, this is this is the one number, 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:08.280 This is the the only one, but this is the 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:11.640 one number I need to commit to memory besides my own. See, 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:15.840 this is a fine example of us humans outsourcing memory 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.359 to metal and plastic, and it's something that we've been 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:21.639 doing for a long time. But now I think it's 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.639 very obvious because, as you say this, these devices are 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:27.400 things that we rely on all the time. Yea. And 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:29.880 not just the devices, of course, but just the Internet itself. 0:02:29.919 --> 0:02:33.760 I mean, as as writers, we've certainly seen this trend 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:38.000 over the years where it's I'm forgetting how to spell 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:41.880 things because the spell check is so ubiquitous, it's everywhere, 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:43.840 it's and you know, and and if it's not in 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.360 the program that I'm using, then it's then it's it 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:49.320 halts me, it brings me to a stop. I can't 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:51.840 finish the sentence because I suddenly have all these doubts 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.320 about the things that I've written. It's like, sometimes I 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:58.040 find myself in a form intentionally misspelling a word in 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.080 order to make sure that the word I just spelled 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.360 was actually correct and not uh and not you know, 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:05.960 it was in a situation where that the spell check 0:03:06.040 --> 0:03:08.720 was somehow turned off or malfunctioning. And that's such a 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:11.639 good example of a microcosm of how you are taking 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.200 memory and just shuttling off to someone else or something. 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:17.440 And I think a good macrocosm of this would be 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.520 something like the cloud, which we are now all beginning 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.960 to back up to right right, your your photos, your 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:28.600 your basic information on your phone, important documents. Uh. I 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:32.600 still occasionally run across old floppy disks that I that 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:34.920 with labels on them where I had like worked on 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:37.320 a short story or part of a novel or something, 0:03:37.560 --> 0:03:40.560 you know, fifteen years ago. And at the time I 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:42.160 was like, all right, this, this is important. I mean 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:43.560 to put this on the ZIP file and I'm gonna 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.800 store this in a different location it doesn't safe or something. 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.240 And now it's becoming increasingbly, you know, it just seems 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:52.320 silly because it's out there in the cloud. It's it's 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:58.080 stored safely, and you know, unknown storage facilities, electronic storage 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.120 facilities around the world. Well see, And I think this 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:01.960 all points to this idea that we are now at 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.200 the age of Watson. And when I'm talking about Watson, 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.960 I am talking about Jeopardy, of course, because this used 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.160 to be the game show in which humans would roll 0:04:09.200 --> 0:04:13.120 out their memory prowess and show everybody how awesome we 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:16.320 were in that department. But along came, of course, an 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:21.120 artificial machine and and trumped Ken Jennings. Of course, this 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:26.080 is the the Jeopardy champ and map enthusiasts math yes, 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:30.360 and showed us how fallible our memories really are and 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:34.200 how we really do rely on outsourcing it and if 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.039 you're like me, you sat there thinking about all this 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.560 outsourcing of memory and you kind of shame yourself a 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.120 little bit because you think, well, you know, maybe I 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.800 should be making an effort to memorize these facts for 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.280 those who retain this information. But then on the other hand, 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:51.000 it makes a certain amount of economic sense, right, I mean, 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.760 our minds are in this universe having to navigate this 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:59.880 world of of physical objects, and in non physical idea 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.880 is abstract numbers, and it makes sense that like a 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.360 sly mold, we would figure out the shortest path through 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.320 the maze. And I like this idea of couching it 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.080 in slime mold because if you think about memory, it 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.240 kind of does have its place an emergence, right, and 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:18.520 this idea of all of us coming together as one 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.240 organism and making life work for us, and in this 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:26.839 case memory. So this is actually called transactive memory, and 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:31.080 it has been around since the dawn of man and woman, 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.839 right yeah, Because I mean if you are thinking about 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.800 early man trying to start a fire or trying to 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:40.960 create a stew, well, it's very possible that several people 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:44.640 know the steps in order to create this fire or 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:48.760 to create this this meal, and so everybody is relying 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.160 on each other to try to figure out how to 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.680 bring all of this to fruition. Right, So, you know, 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:58.159 think about the most complex do in the world, and 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:00.960 maybe it has fifty steps to it. Well, those fifty 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:04.560 steps are distributed among many people who don't have a 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:07.960 writing utensil or the internet at their disposal to try 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.320 to figure out how to do something. And this is, uh, 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:12.520 it's important to know. This is before the age of 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.840 specialization really takes off in a larger sense in the civilization. 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:18.479 You know, the idea that once you have a circles 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:19.880 of food, you don't have to hunt all the time, 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:24.960 and certain individuals can devote themselves to certain specialized tasks. 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:27.760 But it's what but, as we're discussing here, even before that, 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.279 there's a certain amount of specialization that ends up taking 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:36.240 place because we are externalizing the necessary information. We're essentially 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:40.279 outsourcing it to other members of our community. Now. Harvard 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:44.919 psychologist Daniel Witner, Ralph Eber, and Paula Raymond began to 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.040 study transactive memory in earnest in the eighties and they 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.919 found this is interesting in terms of specialization, that spouses 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:56.000 often divide up memory tasks. Yes, and this is really 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.800 the most um, this is the the example of this 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:01.440 is really I think the easiest for most of us 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.680 to understand because they also applied to not only two spouses, 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.320 but also to like close flint friends or or or 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:10.280 people that you're working with an a regular basis. So, 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:11.960 for instance, some of the stuff we're talking about here, 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:16.160 I recognize in our work process. You know. Uh, because 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.080 it comes down to to this, all right, you imagine 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:21.440 you're you and your coworker, you and your spouse. There's 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:25.960 certain information you need easy access to. Now at a 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:28.120 at a very economic level, think about it. Does it 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.040 make sense for you both to have that? You know, 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:33.080 if you need one bottle of water on a hike, 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:35.600 would you both carry a bottle of water? No, one 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:37.559 person would carry the bottle of the water of water 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:39.880 and the other person would say carry the cooler of sandwiches. 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:43.400 And with information with memory, it often ends up the 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.040 same way, and we end up at like, at a 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:49.000 subconscious level, we're doing this. You're not you know, you're 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.560 not actively thinking, well, my wife she's keeping track of 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:54.880 you know of of you know when we have to 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:57.000 go out of town. Uh, this weekend and what time 0:07:57.000 --> 0:07:58.680 we need to leave or whatever. So I'll just let 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.040 her handle that, not because I would choose to forget that, 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.160 I would rather fill my brain with other things. No, 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:05.880 we we end up doing this at a sub conscious level, 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.000 just again, like that slime mold reaching out through the 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.480 maze to find the shortest way out. I know, I 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.120 was thinking about it in my own relationship with my spouse, 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:16.080 and I thought, well, he is the person who keeps 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.800 all the dates in his head as well as like 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.440 details about my personal family history as well as his, 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:24.880 because he's kind of he's the big memory there. But 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:27.080 I'm the person who does all the technology stuff. I 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.040 remember all the pasthwords, I remember all the steps to 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.920 switch between streaming and DVD and UM DVR and all 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:36.199 the different things that have to do with our internet 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.680 media consumption. And we've never talked about it and said, hey, 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.880 this is how we're gonna parse out our life together. 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.360 But that's just sort of how it has fallen to us. 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.199 So I think it's very interesting that we would shuttle 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:53.040 off certain things with people and go to them and say, okay, 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.040 how do you do this now? Of course, it's it's 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:57.720 important to mention in all this that the human memory 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:00.920 is is always flawed. I mean we've talked about this before. 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.040 Our memory of things that happened to us is flawed. 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:04.680 Every time we take that memory out of the drawer, 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:07.080 we alter it in some way, shape or form. And 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:12.040 when it comes to various factoids and specific details, uh, 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.959 that is another area where we just have built in limitations. 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:19.600 But this is where having a brainmate comes from play, 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:22.000 be it a spouse or just you know, a long 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.040 term uh, you know, co worker or friend. There was 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:27.200 a study we're looking at here from Cilia B. Harris 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.960 at All titled Collaborative Remembering When can remembering what others 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:35.360 be beneficial? And in this particular study, the researchers looked 0:09:35.360 --> 0:09:38.480 at older couples who have been together for decades. Uh. 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.960 They separated them questioned individually about events years and years ago, 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.000 and uh, they stumbled on in details about past events 0:09:46.920 --> 0:09:49.520 when they but when they question question them together, they 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:54.000 were able to retrieve even more information. And they they 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.360 observed that the the individuals were engaging in something called 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.760 cross queuing. So they're costing these clues back and forth 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.800 until they trigger enough memories in each other to recall 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:08.120 the total event. So it's like this collective memorization of 0:10:08.160 --> 0:10:10.760 a past event, but they have to be together to 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:13.679 bring it out. It's like the wonder Twins powers activity. 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:16.240 That's so funny. I'm sure everybody has had that experience 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:21.800 before with someone. Now. Another example of creating a little 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.720 hold for our memory is a very interesting one to me, 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.360 and it has to do with photographs, because to me, 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:31.080 this is a very subconscious thing. You take a photograph, right, 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:33.520 and you think, I'm I'm on vacation, I've had this 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:36.360 wonderful moment, and I am remembering all of this, I'm 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.600 soaking it in. But that may not be the case. 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.800 We're of course talking about the photo taking impairment effect. 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:47.520 And uh, I think we've all encountered people at events, 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:52.000 strangers generally, who are taking photographs, and we've we've we've 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:56.440 met this with varying degrees of irritation or resentment. You know, 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:58.520 you're you're saying you're the Grand Canyon, and you're like, 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:00.360 I'm just I just want to take the sin, I 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:02.960 just want to experience it. And then there's here's somebody 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.400 that is, uh, you know, painstakingly setting up a camera 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:08.959 to take a photograph of it, and at times you 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:10.760 can be a little judge. You can think like, oh, well, 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:12.880 look at me, I'm living in the moment of this experience. 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:15.719 I'm experiencing it. A photograph can't even capture what I'm 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.440 seeing now, and you're looking at it through a camera 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:22.920 or growing up, I certainly remember seeing parents obsessed with 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:26.360 video cameras where it seems like they're observing their entire 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:30.199 the entire childhood of their offspring through the lens of 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:33.440 the video camera. Um also, and of course concerts are 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.040 even worse now. I was. I was a concert about 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.080 a year ago, like a heavy metal concert for this 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:42.679 band called Sugar, and the Sugar has been around for 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:46.040 a while, so you saw this differ. I think I 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.800 think there's some relation. It's to the aid issue, but 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:53.280 the other from Scandinavia, but they've been Yeah, they've been 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.360 around for a while and so they're they're fan base, 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:59.920 you know, ranges from you know people. I'm probably around 0:11:59.960 --> 0:12:03.080 the middle of the the the the age of brackets 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.880 for the fans. So me and a friend of mine 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:08.400 were watching the show, but we couldn't help but notice 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.640 some of the younger fans who were basically experiencing the 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:16.680 live music through their their iPhones as they videotaped it, 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.040 and and we, you know, we were just like, this 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:21.600 is the most unmetal thing we've ever seen in their lives. 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.079 You know, you should be experiencing hell. So it's it's 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:26.440 easy to bring this this attitude into it. But then 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.720 you talk to somebody for whom photography is their passion, 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.480 is there is you know, even their you know their career, 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.600 and you know you you you have to admit that 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:40.480 this is the way that they take the beauty in 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.839 their life and and remember it, you know, well in 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:45.520 those cases. And we'll talk in a second about this study. 0:12:45.760 --> 0:12:48.680 That sort of I think vindicates your feelings about being 0:12:48.720 --> 0:12:51.280 at the Grand Canyon and someone looking at it through 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.000 a lens as opposed to experiencing it um In some ways, 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.080 I think the photographer might be able to have a 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.720 the professional photographer might have a better sense of those 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:02.640 events because they go through those images and they do 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.880 a lot of editing afterward, as opposed to someone who's 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:08.240 just happening happens to take a picture of that and 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:10.520 they put on Instagram at that moment. What it's also 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.040 something to be said, maybe I'm being judgy, but taking 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.640 a bad picture something and taking a good picture. For instance, 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:17.480 when I go to the aquarium and I see somebody 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.439 take a flash a direct flash image of something in 0:13:20.480 --> 0:13:22.600 an aquarium tank, like they're not going to get a 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:25.400 good picture, Like like, it's not like you're gonna go 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:27.240 home and be and and you're gonna look at the 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:29.120 image that you took and it's just gonna you know, 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.560 time travel you back to when you were staring at 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:34.200 that octopus. No, you took a really bad photo of 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:37.760 something that was far more impressive in real life, whereas 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.080 you know, there are if someone actually knows what they're 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.679 doing in the camera there and with especially if the 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:46.000 appropriate editing is applied, you can create a more beautiful 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:49.200 vision of what you actually saw. I think that you 0:13:49.200 --> 0:13:53.280 should create a pamphlet to give out at these various 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.360 places like the aquarium, just to do your duty here 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.000 as a little p s A. I have thought before 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:01.120 that I amost want to see a sign that's as 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:05.400 professional of photographers only. Um, I mean really that's kind 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.160 of when there's no photography allow That's basically what the 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.320 arrangement is like. If you want to photograph these works 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:13.520 of art, for instance, for fish, then you need to 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:15.240 know what you're doing. You need to get special permission 0:14:15.280 --> 0:14:16.920 to do it. You want a giant thumb and the 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:19.280 kind of a world class work. Oh well, you know 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:20.920 that's the other thing. Like I when I go to 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.800 an art museum and uh, And I've been accused of 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.720 being a stump about about going to our museums before, 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:29.080 about not wanting to hear a bunch of people talk 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.560 at etcetera. And I and I want to clarify that 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:33.920 I do think it's okay to talk in a museum. 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.200 But when I'm trying to look at works of art 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:38.880 and people are busy getting their photograph made in front 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.720 of it, like that just drives me crazy, Like like 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:43.960 that the art, the art is the art we are, 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:45.960 you know, we should be here to appreciate the art, 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.400 not to say this is great. I love this painting. 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:50.240 It would be a little better for my memory that 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.240 I had a picture of me with it making the 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.160 victory sign with my fingers. All right, Remind me never 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.680 to attend the aquarium or a museum with you, because 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:00.600 I do like the photo bomb every once in a while. 0:15:00.760 --> 0:15:04.280 So just saying, all right, we're talking about here is 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:09.080 Fairfield Universities psychologists Linda Hankel, who gave test participants a 0:15:09.160 --> 0:15:11.840 digital camera in an itinerary of objects to view at 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:13.800 a museum on campus. There. Yeah, they said, go to 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.240 the museum, look at these particular exhibits. And some of 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.480 them were told, all right, take photographs of the whole thing, 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:22.680 you know, this particular painting, whatever. Just get a good 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.000 picture of this painting for me. Other people were told, 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:27.720 get some details, get the details of this paint They 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.240 were asked specifically to zoom in on the detail, okay, 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.480 and that's really important. And other people were just sent 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.360 to look at stuff exactly right, right, and not take 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:39.160 any photographs whatsoever. So the next day she showed them 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.880 pictures of the names of the objects they had seen, 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:44.560 or excuse me that she shown them pictures or the 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:46.600 names of the objects they had seen, and some they 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:48.920 hadn't seen at all, and she asked details about the 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.720 once they remembered. Now, test participants recognized fewer objects they'd 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.840 photographed whole right than those that they observed on their 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:01.160 museum tour, and they were much less accurate and recalling 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.360 visual details of museum objects they've photographed hole compared with 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:09.640 those that only observed unless they zoomed in with their camera. 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:13.320 So just the act of taking the picture allowed them 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:16.400 to use transactive memory, essentially saying I don't need to 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.680 remember this, this is getting documented, so I don't have 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.760 to crab my brain with us unless again they did 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:26.840 the whole zoom function, which changed, uh, their their mindset. Really, 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:29.120 it would change their cognitive function at that moment because 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.240 they had to hone in and really observe at that moment. 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.720 So you see how subconsciously we're doing this with photograph 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:37.720 and you have to wonder, what about the Internet? What 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.720 is that doing to the way that we uh shuttle 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.560 off memory. Yeah, that's essentially the big point we're getting 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.920 to here, especially concerning transactive memory. Again, that idea that 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.680 we're we're saying, all right, well, Judy knows how to 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.360 make this portion of the stew so I'm going to 0:16:52.960 --> 0:16:54.880 uh and it is all subconscious. I'm going to forget 0:16:54.920 --> 0:16:56.600 how to do that because I know that someone else 0:16:56.800 --> 0:16:59.720 in my group is already specializing in that. That is 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.600 how we end up treating the Internet, That's how we 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:05.760 treat the cloud, not as a reference book that we 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.200 have at our disposal, but as a person, as as 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.560 if this is a member of our community who just 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:16.320 happens to say, remember all the fahrenheit celsius conversion tables? 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.320 Who who happens to remember who was in every movie ever? 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.639 Who happens to remember you know, even a little stuff 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.280 like what days to certain holidays fallen this year? I mean, 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:29.159 all the all of that information. They are this uber friend, 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.680 this friend made out of out of the internet. And uh, 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.320 and we treat that, we treat the cloud as if 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.560 it is this person and at least in our mind. Yeah, 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:41.679 And so the question becomes, how does this transactive memory 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:45.640 writ large affect our brain? And I'm sure everybody uh 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.280 is familiar with that by now famous two thousand and 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:53.159 eleven study about how Google has affected our memory and 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.680 has changed it in a sense um. The paper two 0:17:56.680 --> 0:18:00.120 thousand eleven paper called Google Effects on Memory Cognitive consequences 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.680 of having information at our fingertips details research carried out 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.159 in four memory studies, and it was found in just 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:10.240 a general overview. It was found that if participants thought 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:12.880 that the information they were presented with was being backed up, 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:16.120 they were less likely to remember it. In addition, they 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:20.600 had this, uh, this one experiment involving difficult trivia questions, 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:24.920 and participants were more likely to subsequently quickly react to 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.159 words like Google and Yahoo. It was two thousand and eleven, 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:31.919 then the non computer related Nike in your play. So 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:34.680 the idea is that when we were asked about things 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.000 we don't know, our first instinct now is to think 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:42.080 about finding the information online. And I'm sure everybody's experienced 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:43.880 that too. I know that, you know, at least ten 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.960 times a day, I'll be thinking about something and I 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:51.040 and it's very actually very um disturbing to my process 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:53.680 if I'm trying to get something done in one large chunk, 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.639 because my room will will sort of say, okay, go 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:58.560 let's stop what you're doing right now and go look 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:00.959 that up. And it will be silly stuff too, like 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.040 I'll be researching something to do with, say, I don't 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.360 know quantum physics, and then I'll suddenly need to know 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.639 if a vagota is still alive or I want our 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.120 or the other day it was this, I suddenly had 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:15.919 to know what Mitch McConnell looked like when he was younger, 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.800 and incidentally I could find no evidence of what he 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:21.240 looked like when he was younger, Like the the earliest 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:24.560 image I found a Minch McConnell. He was he already 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:26.919 looked like he was in his fifties. So um, if 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.000 anyone out there can can que me into what he 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:32.280 looked like, it's stupid, it makes no sense. But for 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:34.760 some reason, my mind has to know what he looked 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:36.960 like when he was a younger man for no reason, Like, 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:39.960 I'm not obsessed with mint McConnell in any way shape 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:43.040 or form in a negative repositive. And it's funny. I 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:44.879 was looking at a paper on mirror neurons, and all 0:19:44.880 --> 0:19:46.880 of a sudden I had the urge or this thing 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:50.119 bubble up in my brain of was Barbarella supposed to 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.280 be a scientist? And I was like, no, don't stop 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:55.359 what you're doing right now to look that up. Please don't. 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:57.760 But then you have to you have to run off 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:02.280 and uh and hopefully you'll find an answer. I'll get 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:05.199 thirty minutes just going down the rabbit hole. Well, you 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:06.960 know how it is that when we talk about memory 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.280 loop and like closing it, you know that that that 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.240 is going to continually pop up for me until I 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:16.040 go on Google what Barbara Ella's profession was. Yeah, I 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.399 mean I've I've seen the movie several times and I 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.320 can't remember off hands, so I think she was so listeners, 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.440 let us know Barbara Ella. What was her occupation? Mitch McConnell, 0:20:25.480 --> 0:20:27.040 what do you do look like when he's a teenager? 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:30.080