Memory and the Internet

Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips

Betsy Sparrow,1* Jenny Liu, 2 Daniel M. Wegner 3

1Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA. 2Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA. 3Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sparrow@psych.columbia.edu

The advent of the Internet, with sophisticated algorithmic search engines, has made accessing information as easy as lifting a finger. No longer do we have to make costly efforts to find the things we want. We can “Google” the old classmate, find articles online, or look up the actor who was on the tip of our tongue. The results of four studies suggest that when faced with difficult questions, people are primed to think about computers and that when people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it. The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/333/6040/277

Thinking about political attitudes during jury selection

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/obsonline/cognitive-and-motivation-style-differences-underlying-political-orientation.html

The McDonalds Case

MEGA COLLEGE: INTEGRATING “RULES OF THE ROAD”, OJB, “REPTILE”, AND DAMAGES FROM CASE INTAKE TO TRIAL

January 14, 2011 - January 16, 2011
Hotel Palomar
Los Angeles, CA

Cosponsored by the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles

Back by popular demand and available only through AAJ Education, the Mega College integrates four powerful concepts into one trial advocacy program:

• “Rules of the Road” (based upon Rules of the Road: A Plaintiff Lawyer’s Guide to Proving Liability, by Rick Friedman and Patrick Malone)

• Overcoming Juror Bias (based upon and led by the developers of the Juror Bias Model™, Gregory S. Cusimano and David A. Wenner)

• “Reptile” (based upon Reptile: The 2009 Manual of the Plaintiff’s Revolution by David Ball, Ph.D. and Don C. Keenan)

• Damages (based upon David Ball on Damages: A Plaintiff Attorney’s Guide for Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Cases, and David Ball on Damages: The Essential Update by David Ball, Ph.D.)

This program pulls together all these powerful tools so that you can more effectively evaluate, plan, and try your cases to recover full damages for your clients. You will also learn about the Choice Theory. Each stage of a case, from intake to verdict or settlement will be examined through the lens of the four concepts central to every favorable outcome.

The faculty is comprised of the “who’s who” of trial lawyers. They will immerse you in each topic and work one-on-one with you to apply what you have learned in four small workshops. This program is about substance over style—and will become a critical part of every trial lawyers’ toolbox.

What Past Attendees Are Saying

“All of the information was excellent. I know the information quite well but it’s always helpful to immerse myself. Faculty is awesome.” —J. Kevin Morrison, San Francisco, CA, AAJ Member since 1999

"Synthesizing [all the concepts] together was the most valuable." —George R. Digiorgio, Birmingham, AL, AAJ Member since 1981