Lorentz Lecture "do smart devices make us less smart"

In collaboration with the Lorentz Center, Rijksmuseum Boerhaave organizes the Lorentz Lecture "Do Smart Devices Make Us Less Smart?". The English lecture will be given by Tony Chemero.

What is the long-term impact of technological advances on human cognitive abilities? Cultural narratives and recent scientific investigations have painted a mostly negative picture. However, the versatility and accessibility of digital technologies means that they shape the interplay between technology and human cognition in multiple ways. In our lecture, we highlight the need to attend to issues like temporary vs. long-term impact, cognitive vs. motivational influence, and how we think about cognition - as strictly internal processes or as the dynamic interplay between internal processes and external tools. We show implications of this for both research and society, reinforcing the importance of user’s self-control and raising questions about what should be assessed in educational testing. (This work is a collaboration with Lorenzo Cecutti and Spike W.S. Lee.)