Exploring the Influence of Internet Self-Efficacy, Internet Attitude, and Internet Anxiety on Cognitive Priming

Abstract

he internet has become a primary transactive memory source in itself. Gone are the days of physically looking up libraries and piles of books to seek answers, mankind is becoming symbiotic to the computer tools, thereby getting used to the interconnected systems. This excessive dependence, has a flip side, an impact of memory, which makes the source of information more potent than the information in itself. The aim of the present study is to test whether internet self-efficacy, internet attitude and internet anxiety are associated with priming of individuals to think of internet/search engines when faced with a gap in their knowledge. The present study included data collected from 30 participants, and the analysis has shown that people tend to have priming of internet related words, when faced with hard knowledge-based questions. The results indicate that processes of human memory are adapting to the advent of new computing and communication technology.