`Internet makes us rely less on our knowledge'

(Photo:short prom dresses) People are less willing to rely on their knowledge and say they know something when they have access to internet, suggesting that our connection to the web is affecting how we think, a new study has found.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo in Canada asked about 100 participants a series of general-knowledge questions, such as naming the capital of France. Participants indicated if they knew the answer or not. For half of the study, participants had access to internet. They had to look up the answer when they responded that they did not know the answer. In the other half of the study , participants did not have internet access.
The team found that the people who had access to the web were about 5% more likely to say that they did not know the answer to the question. Furthermore, in some contexts, the people with access to internet reported feeling as though they knew less compared to the people without access.
"With the ubiquity of the internet, we are almost constantly connected to large amounts of information. And when that data is within reach, people seem less likely to rely on their own knowledge," said professor Evan F Risko, from the University of Waterloo, who led the study .
In interpreting the results, the researchers specula ted that access to internet might make it less acceptable to say you know something but are incorrect. It is also possible that participants were more likely to say they did not know an answer when they had access to the web because online searching offers an opportunity to confirm their answer or resolve their curiosity, and the process of finding out is rewarding.
Punctuation can tell how sincere a text message is
The way you punctuate your text messages reveals how sincere you are in communication, a new study said. Text messages that end with a period are perceived to be less sincere than messages that do not, said the study from Binghamton University in New York. "Punctuation is used and understood by texters to convey emotions and other social and pragmatic information. It's not surprising that as texting evolves, people are finding ways to convey the same types of information in their texts," said lead researcher Celia Klin. In some very recent follow-up work, Klin's team found that a text response with an exclamation mark is interpreted as more, rather than less, sincere.Read more at:cocktail dresses uk