The Personal Offloading Test

A self-experiment to measure the Google Effect — how knowing you can look things up changes how you remember them.

Try it live: https://google-effect.netlify.app

Based on Sparrow, Liu & Wegner (2011) "Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips" published in Science.

What It Tests

1. Offloading Effect: Do you remember "deleted" information better than "saved" information?
2. Location Memory: Do you remember WHERE information was stored better than WHAT it contained?
3. Google Stroop Effect: After hard trivia questions, do tech-related words (Google, ChatGPT, etc.) interfere with your thinking more than neutral words?

Time Required

~15 minutes

Deployment to Netlify

Option 1: Deploy from GitHub

1. Push this folder to a GitHub repository
2. Go to Netlify
3. Click "Add new site" → "Import an existing project"
4. Connect to your GitHub repository
5. Build settings will auto-detect from netlify.toml
6. Click "Deploy"

Option 2: Manual Deploy

1. Install dependencies: npm install
2. Build: npm run build
3. Drag the build folder to Netlify's deploy drop zone

Option 3: Netlify CLI

npm install -g netlify-cli
npm install
npm run build
netlify deploy --prod

Local Development

npm install
npm start

Opens at http://localhost:3000

Data Output

Results are downloadable as JSON with:

• Free recall performance (saved vs. deleted items)
• Recognition memory (hit rates, false alarm rates)
• Location memory accuracy
• Stroop reaction times (tech words vs. neutral words, after hard vs. easy questions)
• Calculated "Google Effect" coefficient

Scientific Background

The original Sparrow et al. (2011) study found:

• People remember less when they expect information to be saved
• People remember WHERE to find information better than the information itself
• Hard trivia questions prime thoughts about computers/internet

Note: The "Google Stroop" effect failed to replicate in a 2018 Nature study. The save/delete memory effects have been more robust across replications.

License

MIT

Citation

If you use this for research or writing:

Personal Offloading Test. Based on: Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). 
Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. 
Science, 333(6043), 776-778.