Abstract:

So long as technology concerning data delivery and research methodology has existed and continues to evolve, information scientists and cognitive specialists have argued that new methods can be both efficient and less efficient than previous methods. This is largely due to the fact that the human brain learns from infancy to process the data it receives via the most common method used, and thus any alterations in data delivery can result in diminished, or increased, cognitive retention of that data. Parents of young children in the modern era are warned to restrict their children’s exposure to screen time, to electronic books and to television, arguing that it impairs attention span and ability to search for and retain information. Likewise, it is argued that the commonplace position of the Internet and search engines has created a generation devoid of proper research skills and ability to ascertain good information from the bad. Many studies have been conducted into the validity of the idea that new methods of technology and tools such as the Internet inhibit or enhance an individual’s data collection abilities. Both subjective methods of data collection and objective methods are used to analyse the phenomenon, as well as the validity of the perspectives used by varying analysis methods themselves on the subject, followed by the conclusion that objective data does seem to indicate that proper research is inhibited by access to too much less-quality information, but that cognitive processes are not as inhibited as previously thought.