| Can be argued that Googling is simply unimportant. It is not an extension of a thought process (as pouring a cup of tea is not an extension of our digestive process), it's simply something trivial that we do and immediately discard the memories of that as of having no importance for us. Humans are - I believe - goal-oriented, so whenever we want to discover something that's our goal, not the process that led us there (unless something memorable happens along that process). IMHO, what we remember is the task and its outcome, not the trivialities that brought us from one to another. Which makes me wonder why the last question puzzles people. I don't readily remember my search history, because I just discard the memories of reaching for something (unless there was something exceptional, which is rare). It's like driving to the restaurant, when there are multiple ways to get to the place. I do remember the outcome (dinner) but unless something happened on the road I probably would need to think/reconstruct if I'd be suddenly asked about the particular roads I took. Same with the articles - I do remember what I was interested in today (as opposed to "what I've searched for", a subtle difference), and what were the results - things I've read top-to-bottom. Although maybe not in true historical order, but typically the last one is still correct. To summarize: - "How often" - unimportant, as the count rarely has a value. Need to enumerate and count things, and that's quite a tedious mental process. - "What was the last thing before the last" - typically unimportant, as historical order of unrelated events rarely has a value. Needs some mental processing to sort things. - "What is the last thing you read" - beats me, I do remember what I've read. May need some mental processing (going through my "reading history" and confirming that I've reached this by searching), but besides a possible surprise factor not really a puzzling question. |