Scientists have discovered that use of internet search engines and databases such as Google and IMDb.com to find information is making people lose their memory.
科學家發現，常用谷歌（Google）和互聯網電影資料庫（IMDb.com）等搜索引擎和數據庫查找信息，會造成記憶力減退。

Search engines like Google or Yahoo make people think they are smarter than they actually are because they have the world's knowledge at their fingertips, psychologists at Yale University have found.
耶魯大學的心理學家發現，谷歌或雅虎等搜索引擎容易讓人對自己的聰明程度自視過高，因為他們只要輕觸指尖，就能獲取全世界的知識。

Browsing the internet for information gives people a ‘widely inaccurate’ view of their own intelligence and could lead to over-confidence when making decisions, experts warn.
專家提醒，瀏覽互聯網信息會讓人對自己的智力有一種“非常不準確”的認識，還會讓人在做決定時過于自信。

In a series of experiments, participants who had searched for information on the internet believed they were far more knowledgeable about a subject than those who had learned by normal routes, such as reading a book or talking to a tutor. Internet users also believed their brains were sharper.
在一系列實驗中，用互聯網搜索信息的參與者認為，比起用查閱書籍或請教導師等常見學習方法搜索信息的參與者，他們對主題信息的了解更加全面。他們同時還認為，自己的思維更加敏銳。

?"The Internet is such a powerful environment, where you can enter any question, and you basically have access to the world's knowledge at your fingertips," said lead researcher Matthew Fisher, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in psychology at Yale University.
首席研究員、耶魯大學心理學四年級博士生馬修?費舍爾表示：“互聯網是一個如此強大的環境，在這里你可以查找任何問題，幾乎可以瀏覽全世界的信息。

"It becomes easier to confuse your own knowledge with this external source. When people are truly on their own, they may be wildly inaccurate about how much they know and how dependent they are on the Internet."
“有了這樣強大的外部信息來源，人們很容易對自己的知識能力進行誤讀。當他們只能依靠自己的力量時，對于自己知識的匱乏程度和對互聯網的依賴程度，他們的認識也非常不準確。”

More than 1,000 students took part in a range of experiments aimed at gauging the psycholgocal impact of searching on the internet.
為了探究互聯網搜索對心理的影響，研究人員對1000多名學生進行了一系列實驗。

In one test, the internet group were given a website link which gave the answer to the question ‘how does a zip work’ while a control group were given a print-out of the same information.
在一項測試中，研究人員給互聯網組提供了一個鏈接，內容是關于“拉鏈工作原理”的答案，未聯網組拿到的則是打印版本的內容。

When the two groups were quizzed later on an unrelated question – ‘why are cloudy nights warmer?’ the group who had searched online believed they were more knowledgeable even though they were not allowed to look up the correct answer.
隨后，兩組人分別被問及一個不相關的問題“為什么陰天的夜晚更加溫暖？”在不允許搜索正確答案的情況下，互聯網組依然認為他們的知識更加淵博。

Psychology professor Frank Keil, of Yale University, said the study showed that the cognitive effects of "being in search mode" on the internet were so powerful that people still feel smarter even when their online searches did not help.
耶魯大學心理學教授弗蘭克?凱爾表示，這項研究表明，互聯網“搜索模式”的認知效果非常強大，人們即使在沒有尋求互聯網幫助的情況下，仍然自我感覺良好。

And the growing use of smartphones may exacerbate the problem because an internet search is always within reach.
而隨著智能手機的普及，互聯網搜索更是觸手可及，也使得這種狀況更加嚴重。

“With the internet, the lines become blurry between what you know and what you think you know,” added Mr Fisher.
費舍爾補充道：“互聯網的使用模糊了‘自己知道的事’與‘自以為知道的事’之間的界線。”

?The researchers also believe that an inflated sense of personal knowledge also could be dangerous in the political realm or other areas involving high-stakes decisions.
研究人員還認為，個體知識的膨脹感在政治領域或涉及高風險決策的領域可能會十分危險。

"In cases where decisions have big consequences, it could be important for people to distinguish their own knowledge and not assume they know something when they actually don't," Mr Fisher added.
費舍爾說：“在做重大決策時，分清楚自己真正知道的東西和以為自己知道但其實并不知道的東西，對決策人來說很重要。"

The Internet is an enormous benefit in countless ways, but there may be some trade-offs that aren't immediately obvious and this may be one of them.
“互聯網在很多方面具有巨大優勢，有一些弊端可能不會立即顯現，讓人誤以為自己更聰明可能就是弊端之一。

“Accurate personal knowledge is difficult to achieve, and the Internet may be making that task even harder."
“精準的自我認知本來就很難做到，而互聯網讓這個過程難上加難。”

The study was published by the American Psychological Association. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
這項研究結果由美國心理學協會發表在《實驗心理學雜志?總論》上。

Vocabulary

gauge: 判定，評估
exacerbate: 使惡化
blurry: 模糊的

（英文來源：每日電訊報 譯者：趙文辛 編輯：馬文英）