Staten Island: Information Literacy

The brain is a muscle in many ways, and in the same way other muscles can get tired the brain can as well.  When a person is searching through various sources for information it is easy to become overloaded.  This information overload is not a failure of the researcher, but a very well documented phenomenon.  Information overload occurs when during research person becomes over stimulated and shuts down.  There are about seven different responses to information overload.

1. Omission – failing to process some of the information
2. Error – incorrectly processing information
3. Queuing  – delaying when the researcher process information, with the intent to do so later
4. Filtering – processing information based on “priority”
5. Approximation – lowering standards of discrimination by being less precise in categorizing inputs and responses
6. Multiple Channels – splitting up information into more digestible parts
7. Escaping – stopping the research process altogether (Case, 2012, p. 116)

It is important to recognize when you have begun to suffer from information overload.  When you have, it is best to step away from your research and clear your head.  Forcing yourself to cram will only mean you have a compromised understanding of a subject and diminish your command of the information.

Case, D. O. (2012). Looking for Information. Bingley, United Kingdom: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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By enrolling at St. Paul’s you have committed yourself to becoming a medical professional.  Through your classes and studies you will become familiar with vocabulary and terms which people outside of your profession may not understand.  It will become part of your job to explain to these people what these different medical terms mean.  The links here will help you learn how to take complicated ideas and break them down for your patients.  Explore them at your leisure, or whenever you need to quickly teach someone about your profession.