ABSTRACT

Using the Internet is ubiquitous, but not all of the consequences of this habitual technology use are known. Theoretical models and related research suggest that the act of searching for information on the Internet itself may bias users toward overestimating themselves. The current study is the first direct empirical test of this assumption. In a two-by-two design, n = 184 participants were randomly assigned to between-subject Internet or NoInternet conditions in each of two phases: In the Induction Phase 1, participants made predictive metacognitive judgments about their ability to answer a first set of explanatory knowledge questions. In the Target Phase 2, they made predictive and postdictive metacognitive judgments about their ability to answer a second, entirely unrelated set of explanatory knowledge questions and answered two of these questions. Results show that Internet use affected tasks only in the same phase, but not in subsequent unrelated phases. Internet use resulted in better answers, but also in significant and persistent overestimation of information problem-solving ability and performance, even in more accurate postdictive metacognitive judgments. Potential consequences of this side effect of Internet use are discussed such as premature termination of information problem-solving and suboptimal performance.

抽象的

互联网无处不在，但并不是人们都知道这种惯用技术的所有后果。理论模型和相关研究表明，在Internet本身上搜索信息的行为可能会使用户偏向于高估自己。当前的研究是对该假设的首次直接实证检验。在二乘二的设计中，在两个阶段的每个阶段中，将n = 184的参与者随机分配到主题间的Internet或NoInternet条件：在归纳阶段1中，参与者对他们回答第一组问题的能力进行了预测性元认知判断。解释性知识问题。在目标阶段2，他们就回答第二套完全不相关的解释性知识问题的能力做出了预测性和预测性元认知判断，并回答了其中两个问题。结果表明，Internet使用仅在同一阶段使用受影响的任务，而在随后的不相关阶段则没有。互联网的使用带来了更好的答案，但也导致了对信息问题解决能力和性能的持续高估，即使是更准确的预测性元认知判断也是如此。讨论了使用Internet的这种副作用的潜在后果，例如信息问题解决的过早终止和性能欠佳。