Institute of Art Design + Technology
Dún Laoghaire

Amy Lee Benton Byrne 

BSc [Hons] Applied Psychology

My name is Amy Lee Benton Byrne. I am soon to be a graduate of the BSc applied psychology course in IADT. My main areas of interest are sensory integration therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, and body psychotherapy. My next goal is to obtain a MA in practiced based play therapy.

Project Description

Technology devices have become an integral aspect of day-to-day life for most adults. If individuals need to learn how to complete a complex statistical question, find out the score of a rugby game, or simply remember the phone number of a close relative, they need only turn to their technology devices for the answer. My major research project aimed to explore whether the accessibility of technology devices have changed how individuals store and recall information from their memory.


Project Objectives

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of screen time and internet search dependence on individuals’ verbal memory recall. Internet search dependence describes the dependent habits which individuals have cultivated through internet searching (Nicholas et al., 2009). Data was collected from 111 participants aged between 18-55 ( M = 32.4, SD = 10.5). Participants’ daily average screen time was recorded using a self-report measure. Brunswick and Buskist’s (2004) Long-term Memory Test was appropriately adapted to assess participants’ verbal memory recall. The Questionnaire on Internet Search Dependence by Wang et al. (2016) was used to measure the psychological characteristics of internet search dependence.


Project Outcomes

Results of the study indicated that no significant difference exists in participants’ verbal memory recall, based on the effect of their daily average screen time (Low, Medium, High) and internet search dependence (Low, Medium, High). Although the study produced no statistically significant findings, it has contributed to the research on screen time, internet search dependence, and its effects on long-term memory, which to date, is an understudied area.