Part of the reason, this interpretative (and ultimately assimilative) process is so difficult, when it comes to a role that the Internet might play in our expository life, resides in a memory-based challenge associated with active versus passive engagement with our environment. We know that our environment is constantly teaching us, but it seems that we are most likely to learn from, remember about and effectively assimilate that in our environment with which we are actively interacting.
If we are merely passive observers of something, then we are unlike to remember it and are clearly less likely to integrate it with our existing expository/declarative memory system. Many studies have conducted over the years that usually involve strapping down an unfortunate lab animal (often a cat, dog or white rat) to some kind of a trolley or cart. The animal is hauled around a large maze or the basement of the building where the psychology department is located in a prestigious university.
Typically, these studies reveal (and further demonstrate that these animals were unable to navigate around these halls when taken off the trolleys. Other animals who could navigate themselves around the maze or basement (even while strapped on the trolley) were much more successful at navigating the maze or basement. They seemed to be learning even without focusing on a specific reward (such as cheese at the end of the maze or a bowl of food at the other end of the basement. This has been labeled “latent learning” and it is often brought forward when traditional reward-based learning is being advocated.
This same process is in effect for human beings as we travel around our own maze-like world. Latent learning is what all of us know regarding traveling by car around a city. If we are driving then it is much more likely that we can recall the street map and specific pathway we have taken then if we are sitting in passenger’s seat and are only passively observing our trip through the city. We are confronted yet again with the impact of a technology on our lives. In this case, it is our reliance on the GPS. We aren’t learning about the city because we are relying on some other source to direct us. Even as a driver, we have become a passive observer. We have become one of the trolley cats strapped to our automobile.
