Search Fluency Mistaken for Understanding
Ease of Information Retrieval from the Internet Inflates Internal Knowledge Confidence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2414660 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kristy A Hamilton (0000-0001-6567-8427, University of California, Santa Barbara, corresponding author), Qi Li (0000-0003-3042-3584, University of California, Santa Barbara), Li Qi (0000-0002-7224-1327) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2023-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Media + Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2056-3051 • E-ISSN: 2056-3051 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/20563051231195547 |
| OpenAlex | W4386259533 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 28 |
Internet search engines boast material features (e.g., Google's knowledge panels, Featured Snippets) that increase the speed with which users find answers to search queries-while reducing their effort-to create a seamless media experience. Yet, the ability to instantaneously retrieve answers through seamless digital search may come at a metacognitive cost. This experiment examines the effect of digital search fluency on internal (in the 'brain') knowledge confidence. In a question-answering task, participants report higher ratings of internal knowledge confidence accompanying immediate access to Featured Snippets than those with delayed or no access to Featured Snippets. The effects of immediate information access on knowledge confidence not only occur for specific topics for which relevant information has been retrieved but also for topics irrelevant to the retrieved information. When people have immediate access to explanations through features that enhance access to information, external retrieval fluency may serve as a heuristic for internal knowledge confidence. Search engines that contribute to the immediate retrieval of external information may inadvertently strain Internet users' ability to distinguish between mind and machine as the source of their knowledge
Cognition · Data retrieval · Fluency · Heuristic · Information retrieval · Information seeking · Knowledge retrieval · Metacognition · Search engine · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Engineering · Memory Processes and Influences · Psychological and Educational Research Studies · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
Searching for explanations
The misunderstood limits of folk science
How do we know that we know? The accessibility model of the feeling of knowing.
The brain in your pocket
Google Effects on Memory
Uniting the Tribes of Fluency to Form a Metacognitive Nation
Remembering Mistaken for Knowing
Amazon's Mechanical Turk
Transactive Memory
Political Extremism Is Supported by an Illusion of Understanding
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |