© PENSAMIENTO, ISSN 0031-4749 PENSAMIENTO, vol. 71 (2015), núm. 269, pp. 1375-1382 DOI: pen.v71.i269.y2015.019 IMPACT OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES ON HUMAN COGNITIVE PROCESSES. IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN NATURE SARA LUMBRERAS, ANA MORENO, JESÚS LATORRE Universidad Pontifica Comillas ABSTRACT: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have dramatically changed the way we access knowledge and process data, how we learn and work and the way we relate to other human beings. Given that their mainstream incorporation to daily life is relatively recent their consequences on our psychology and behaviour are only beginning to be explored. The growing interest in this topic manifests itself in a myriad research works that study the associated phenomena from different angles. However, a unified perspective is still missing. This paper attempts to fill that gap by providing a summarized view of the consequences that the use of ICTs is having on our intellectual abilities and the way we view themselves as human beings. KEY WORDS: information and communication technologies, learning, memory, attention, multitasking. El impacto de las Tecnologías de la Comunicación y la Información en los procesos cognitivos humanos. Implicaciones para la naturaleza humana RESUMEN: Las Tecnologías de la Comunicación y la Información (TCIs) han cambiado drásticamente la manera en la que accedemos al conocimiento y procesamos datos, cómo aprendemos y trabajamos y nuestra manera de relacionarnos con otros seres humanos. El interés creciente que despiertan las consecuencias del uso de las TCIs se ha manifestado en múltiples estudios aislados que analizan estos fenómenos desde puntos de vista diferentes. Este artículo tiene como objetivo proporcionar una perspectiva unificadora de estos trabajos, reflexionando sobre las consecuencias que el uso de las TCI está teniendo en nuestras habilidades intelectuales y en cómo nos percibimos a nosotros mismos como seres humanos. PALABRAS CLAVE: tecnologías de la comunicación y la información, aprendizaje, memoria, atención, multitasking. 1. INTRODUCTION Traditional epistemological models classify knowledge in separate disciplines with different objects of study and specific techniques. Some of these classifications even assign hierarchical levels to each branch of knowledge, with Comte’s Theory of Science providing one of the most well recognized frameworks (Comte, 1868). For Comte, all known disciplines could be arranged into a continuous from mathematics to astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and, lastly, sociology. The order in which Comte ordered the sciences reflected increasing complexity and generality of the subject, which contrasted with a decreasing complexity of the instruments applied by each discipline. As will be further detailed in this article, recent studies seem to show that technology is affecting the structure of our thinking processes. Very importantly, digital storage and easy information access —notably, on the Internet— means that the need to commit data to memory in daily life is not as usual as it once was. Telephone numbers, historical