Finally I got to read your article. Great read! Also the illustrations are very helpful. I could not restrain from writing a bit of a comment.
I agree that external aids to cognition rather extend, than replace (neuronal) cognition. However, the less physical/tangible they are, they less they might actually make it into our long-term memory.
Our brain learns about the world, by perceiving it through our senses. The more sense involved in learning about something the stronger the connection _grows_ in our brains (This is really cool, you can even observe neuroplasticity with imaging techniques: http://www.depaolalab.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/slider-home-plasticity-940x400.gi).
If you note down where the MoMa is, or your friend tells you, you most probably will remember it. You learned the _structure_ of your notebook previously by using it everyday. Also you will remember your _feeling_ of surprise that your friend knew it — even though you always thought he has not been to New York.
In contrast, if you search for the MoMa on Google you end up on a web page, that just randomly appears and might not even be there when you look it up next time. There is no _structure_ to remember or trust for your future searches. Also there is no _feel_ to it. This leaves your brain with way less context to remember. Even worse, over time you get used to searching for things you don’t know on Google and grow a strong connection between “I don’t know” and “just _google_ it”. This is just an idea. I do not have any study at hand, which might back it up.
Maybe it would be helpful to add more and richer _context_ and _structure_ to _intangible_ information. Just some thoughts:
- (geographical) maps help
- network/visualisations for abstract information would be awesome
- maybe it would help to see the photo your mate took there last time, see his video comment
- or automatically store results, their search path and context for future reference (almost like in a dictionary)
It would be awesome to run an experiment on _memorability_ of search results…
