神马文学网记忆的艺术
来源：百度文库 编辑：神马文学网 时间：2024/04/28 00:30:27
于2010-08-08 00:10:56翻译
记忆实际上包括2个方面：提取能力和储存能力。增强储存能力的最佳时间是在提取能力即将消失之际。
Tags:记忆 |学习 |心理
This column will change your life: The art of remembering
Oliver Burkeman
If you had invented a revolutionary technique for improving human memory, and wanted to spread the news as widely as possible, you couldn't do much worse than Piotr Wozniak, creator of theSuperMemosystem. Wozniak lives somewhere in Poland – he keeps his exact location secret – and owns no phone. He never attendspsychologyconferences. "I travel rarely and only to vacation destinations. Otherwise I am entirely stationary," he explains on his website, where he also apologises for not replying promptly to emails. (He didn't reply to mine.) In 2008, he gave an interview of sorts toWired magazine, but spent much of it persuading the interviewer to join him swimming in the near-freezing Baltic Sea. He's not a misanthrope, however. He apparently considers his isolation essential for a long-term personal experiment he's conducting, aimed at becoming as efficient at acquiring knowledge as it's possible for a human to be.
For most of us, wanting a better memory has more to do with not forgetting appointments, or wishing we hadn't let our childhood French slip away, or why we keep finding ourselves in the living room with no recollection of what we came to fetch. But SuperMemo isn't only for reclusive eccentrics. It's a widely applicable learning method, based on the concept of "spaced repetition", which exploits a curious finding in the psychology of memory: the best time to get something deeply lodged in your brain is when you're on the verge of forgetting it. Like an older technique, theLeitner System, SuperMemo schedules your study sessions so that you're reconfronted with material at the optimal moment for retaining it. For language learning, say, the usefulness is obvious. But memorisation is an unacknowledged component of much of the work we do, so SuperMemo may have implications for when best to focus on other kinds of "brain work", too.
The crucial notion here is that remembering involves two aspects: retrieval strength and storage strength. Just because you can recall something easily doesn't mean it's deeply entrenched in your brain yet. SuperMemo works on the principle that the best time to improve storage strength is when retrieval strength has faded almost to nothing. But the storage/retrieval distinction also means, consolingly, that you probably haven't really forgotten your childhood French, in terms of storage strength. It's there somewhere. You just need practice at retrieving it.
Not that learning French using SuperMemo, or any other memory exercise, will necessarily keep your brain more generally limber, so you never again forget why you came into the living room. The idea of the brain as a muscle – "use it or lose it" – is far from established; the evidence for the benefits of "brain training" software, or doing the crossword daily, remains patchy. But the brain-as-muscle metaphor may be one of those cases that demonstrates the limits of demanding scientific backup when it comes to self-help. Since it feels so true, "brain exercise" makes people feel happier, which is half the point. In fact, the best ways to care for your brain are probably physical exercise, good diet and sleep; but happier people are surely more likely to make those choices. One study, meanwhile, suggests memorisation skills can be improved merely by socialising more. I wonder what the reclusive Wozniak makes of that, though on the evidence so far, I'm going to have to keep wondering.
记忆的艺术
如果你发明了一种可以从根本上增强人类记忆力的技术并想使之广为人知，你大概不会比超记系统（SuperMemo System) 的发明者Piotr Wozniak 做得更糟糕。他居住于波兰某地－－具体地址仍然是个秘密，也没有电话。他从不参加心理学的学术会议。他在他的网站上解释说：“我很少旅行。除了偶尔去度假，我基本上不外出”。他还对不经常回复邮件表示歉意（我的邮件他就没回）。2008年《连线》杂志记者对他进行了一次差不多可以算是访谈的谈话，其中很大一部分时间被他用来试图说服访谈者和他一起去寒冷的波罗的海游泳。当然，他并不是讨厌与他人交往。他正在进行一项长期的个人试验，而与世隔绝是试验的基本条件之一。这项试验的目的是把人类获取知识的效率发挥到极限。
对我们大多数人来说，改善记忆无非是不忘掉约会、仍能记得几句儿时学到的法语，或者走到起居室后不会忘记到底是去拿什么东西的之类的事情。但是超记系统并不仅仅是为那些离群索居的怪人设计的，它是一种基于“间隔重复”的具有广泛用途的学习方法。超记系统充分利用了记忆心理学方面的一项有趣发现：把某件事情深植脑海的最佳时间是快要要忘记它的时候。和较早的莱特拉系统（Leitner system ）类似，超记系统详细规划你的学习时间，在最佳的间隔时间复习学习内容，从而加强对内容的记忆。这对学习语言等显然是非常有用的。但人们并没认识到记忆其实是很多人类行为的重要组成部分，因此，超记系统也可能有利于需要“动脑筋”而不是死记硬背的其他脑力活动。
这里需要注意的一个关键是，记忆实际上包括2个方面：提取能力和储存能力。你能够回忆起某件事情并不意味着这件事已经根植于你的脑海。增强储存能力的最佳时间是在提取能力即将消失之际，超记系统依据的就是这一原理。另一方面，令人欣慰的是，提取能力与储存能力的区分，也意味着就储存能力而言，你可能并没有真正忘记儿时学的法语。它仍然储存在什么地方，你需要做的只是学着把它提取出来。
用超记系统帮助学法语或者做其他记忆练习并不一定能增加大脑的灵活性，使你再也不会忘记为什么到起居室之类的事情。大脑和肌肉一样“越用越灵活”的观点还远未被确证；也没有过硬的证据证明使用大脑训练软件或每天做填字游戏等活动的益处。但是大脑象肌肉一样这种比喻说明，人们在涉及自己的亲身经历时，并不要求严格的科学证据。人们感觉这是真的，”大脑练习“带给人们快乐，这就够了。其实，大脑保健的最佳方法是体育锻炼、健康的饮食和充足的睡眠，而幸福的人更可能做到这些。另外，还有一项研究认为多社交有助于增强记忆力。就目前能得到的证据来看，我对此是半信半疑的。不知道那位离群索居的Wozniak 对此有何感想。
原文作者： Oliver Burkeman
记忆实际上包括2个方面：提取能力和储存能力。增强储存能力的最佳时间是在提取能力即将消失之际。
Tags:记忆 |学习 |心理
This column will change your life: The art of remembering
Oliver Burkeman
If you had invented a revolutionary technique for improving human memory, and wanted to spread the news as widely as possible, you couldn't do much worse than Piotr Wozniak, creator of theSuperMemosystem. Wozniak lives somewhere in Poland – he keeps his exact location secret – and owns no phone. He never attendspsychologyconferences. "I travel rarely and only to vacation destinations. Otherwise I am entirely stationary," he explains on his website, where he also apologises for not replying promptly to emails. (He didn't reply to mine.) In 2008, he gave an interview of sorts toWired magazine, but spent much of it persuading the interviewer to join him swimming in the near-freezing Baltic Sea. He's not a misanthrope, however. He apparently considers his isolation essential for a long-term personal experiment he's conducting, aimed at becoming as efficient at acquiring knowledge as it's possible for a human to be.
For most of us, wanting a better memory has more to do with not forgetting appointments, or wishing we hadn't let our childhood French slip away, or why we keep finding ourselves in the living room with no recollection of what we came to fetch. But SuperMemo isn't only for reclusive eccentrics. It's a widely applicable learning method, based on the concept of "spaced repetition", which exploits a curious finding in the psychology of memory: the best time to get something deeply lodged in your brain is when you're on the verge of forgetting it. Like an older technique, theLeitner System, SuperMemo schedules your study sessions so that you're reconfronted with material at the optimal moment for retaining it. For language learning, say, the usefulness is obvious. But memorisation is an unacknowledged component of much of the work we do, so SuperMemo may have implications for when best to focus on other kinds of "brain work", too.
The crucial notion here is that remembering involves two aspects: retrieval strength and storage strength. Just because you can recall something easily doesn't mean it's deeply entrenched in your brain yet. SuperMemo works on the principle that the best time to improve storage strength is when retrieval strength has faded almost to nothing. But the storage/retrieval distinction also means, consolingly, that you probably haven't really forgotten your childhood French, in terms of storage strength. It's there somewhere. You just need practice at retrieving it.
Not that learning French using SuperMemo, or any other memory exercise, will necessarily keep your brain more generally limber, so you never again forget why you came into the living room. The idea of the brain as a muscle – "use it or lose it" – is far from established; the evidence for the benefits of "brain training" software, or doing the crossword daily, remains patchy. But the brain-as-muscle metaphor may be one of those cases that demonstrates the limits of demanding scientific backup when it comes to self-help. Since it feels so true, "brain exercise" makes people feel happier, which is half the point. In fact, the best ways to care for your brain are probably physical exercise, good diet and sleep; but happier people are surely more likely to make those choices. One study, meanwhile, suggests memorisation skills can be improved merely by socialising more. I wonder what the reclusive Wozniak makes of that, though on the evidence so far, I'm going to have to keep wondering.
记忆的艺术
如果你发明了一种可以从根本上增强人类记忆力的技术并想使之广为人知，你大概不会比超记系统（SuperMemo System) 的发明者Piotr Wozniak 做得更糟糕。他居住于波兰某地－－具体地址仍然是个秘密，也没有电话。他从不参加心理学的学术会议。他在他的网站上解释说：“我很少旅行。除了偶尔去度假，我基本上不外出”。他还对不经常回复邮件表示歉意（我的邮件他就没回）。2008年《连线》杂志记者对他进行了一次差不多可以算是访谈的谈话，其中很大一部分时间被他用来试图说服访谈者和他一起去寒冷的波罗的海游泳。当然，他并不是讨厌与他人交往。他正在进行一项长期的个人试验，而与世隔绝是试验的基本条件之一。这项试验的目的是把人类获取知识的效率发挥到极限。
对我们大多数人来说，改善记忆无非是不忘掉约会、仍能记得几句儿时学到的法语，或者走到起居室后不会忘记到底是去拿什么东西的之类的事情。但是超记系统并不仅仅是为那些离群索居的怪人设计的，它是一种基于“间隔重复”的具有广泛用途的学习方法。超记系统充分利用了记忆心理学方面的一项有趣发现：把某件事情深植脑海的最佳时间是快要要忘记它的时候。和较早的莱特拉系统（Leitner system ）类似，超记系统详细规划你的学习时间，在最佳的间隔时间复习学习内容，从而加强对内容的记忆。这对学习语言等显然是非常有用的。但人们并没认识到记忆其实是很多人类行为的重要组成部分，因此，超记系统也可能有利于需要“动脑筋”而不是死记硬背的其他脑力活动。
这里需要注意的一个关键是，记忆实际上包括2个方面：提取能力和储存能力。你能够回忆起某件事情并不意味着这件事已经根植于你的脑海。增强储存能力的最佳时间是在提取能力即将消失之际，超记系统依据的就是这一原理。另一方面，令人欣慰的是，提取能力与储存能力的区分，也意味着就储存能力而言，你可能并没有真正忘记儿时学的法语。它仍然储存在什么地方，你需要做的只是学着把它提取出来。
用超记系统帮助学法语或者做其他记忆练习并不一定能增加大脑的灵活性，使你再也不会忘记为什么到起居室之类的事情。大脑和肌肉一样“越用越灵活”的观点还远未被确证；也没有过硬的证据证明使用大脑训练软件或每天做填字游戏等活动的益处。但是大脑象肌肉一样这种比喻说明，人们在涉及自己的亲身经历时，并不要求严格的科学证据。人们感觉这是真的，”大脑练习“带给人们快乐，这就够了。其实，大脑保健的最佳方法是体育锻炼、健康的饮食和充足的睡眠，而幸福的人更可能做到这些。另外，还有一项研究认为多社交有助于增强记忆力。就目前能得到的证据来看，我对此是半信半疑的。不知道那位离群索居的Wozniak 对此有何感想。
原文作者： Oliver Burkeman