Access to web-based information creates illusions of learning and reduces memorization¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · reviewr3·q2
Currency · newest study 2023 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Searching the Internet leads to less memorization while giving learners the impression of having learned the information; search fluency is wrongly taken as a memory cue. → Alexander Skulmowski 2023
Evidence¶
Alexander Skulmowski 2023¶
Alexander Skulmowski. (2023). The Cognitive Architecture of Digital Externalization. Educational Psychology Review, 35:101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09818-1
q2 · i? · review · r3
The review reports experimental findings on Internet search and metacognition (Fisher et al., 2022): "Searching the Internet leads to less memori- zation and gives learners the impression of having learned that information." Related work (Stone & Storm, 2021) found search fluency is wrongfully taken as a cue of future recall; Flanagin and Lew (2023) found people overestimate task performance with web access.
"Searching the Internet leads to less memori- zation and gives learners the impression of having learned that information (Fisher et al., 2022)."
Discussion¶
Learner Variables¶
- Access — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes
Related Claims¶
- Fluent Illusions Mislead Self Assessment — related
- ChatGPT users showed a non-significant trend toward worse overall informal learning outcomes than Google Search users over 8 days — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
web-access-illusion-of-learning |
title |
Access to web-based information creates illusions of learning and reduces memorization |
description |
Access to web-based information creates illusions of learning and reduces memorization |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2023 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-22 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — alexander-skulmowski-2023 |
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