于2010-08-08 00:10:56翻譯
記憶實際上包括2個方面：提取能力和儲存能力。增強(qiáng)儲存能力的最佳時間是在提取能力即將消失之際。
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學(xué)習(xí) |
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 the
SuperMemosystem. Wozniak lives somewhere in Poland – he keeps his exact location secret – and owns no phone. He never attends
psychologyconferences. "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 to
Wired 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, the
Leitner 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.
記憶的藝術(shù)
如果你發(fā)明了一種可以從根本上增強(qiáng)人類記憶力的技術(shù)并想使之廣為人知，你大概不會比超記系統(tǒng)（SuperMemo System) 的發(fā)明者
Piotr Wozniak 做得更糟糕。他居住于波蘭某地－－具體地址仍然是個秘密，也沒有電話。他從不參加心理學(xué)的學(xué)術(shù)會議。他在他的網(wǎng)站上解釋說：“我很少旅行。除了偶爾去度假，我基本上不外出”。他還對不經(jīng)?；貜?fù)郵件表示歉意（我的郵件他就沒回）。2008年《連線》雜志記者對他進(jìn)行了一次差不多可以算是訪談的談話，其中很大一部分時間被他用來試圖說服訪談?wù)吆退黄鹑ズ涞牟_的海游泳。當(dāng)然，他并不是討厭與他人交往。他正在進(jìn)行一項長期的個人試驗，而與世隔絕是試驗的基本條件之一。這項試驗的目的是把人類獲取知識的效率發(fā)揮到極限。
對我們大多數(shù)人來說，改善記憶無非是不忘掉約會、仍能記得幾句兒時學(xué)到的法語，或者走到起居室后不會忘記到底是去拿什么東西的之類的事情。但是超記系統(tǒng)并不僅僅是為那些離群索居的怪人設(shè)計的，它是一種基于“間隔重復(fù)”的具有廣泛用途的學(xué)習(xí)方法。超記系統(tǒng)充分利用了記憶心理學(xué)方面的一項有趣發(fā)現(xiàn)：把某件事情深植腦海的最佳時間是快要要忘記它的時候。和較早的萊特拉系統(tǒng)（Leitner system ）類似，超記系統(tǒng)詳細(xì)規(guī)劃你的學(xué)習(xí)時間，在最佳的間隔時間復(fù)習(xí)學(xué)習(xí)內(nèi)容，從而加強(qiáng)對內(nèi)容的記憶。這對學(xué)習(xí)語言等顯然是非常有用的。但人們并沒認(rèn)識到記憶其實是很多人類行為的重要組成部分，因此，超記系統(tǒng)也可能有利于需要“動腦筋”而不是死記硬背的其他腦力活動。
這里需要注意的一個關(guān)鍵是，記憶實際上包括2個方面：提取能力和儲存能力。你能夠回憶起某件事情并不意味著這件事已經(jīng)根植于你的腦海。增強(qiáng)儲存能力的最佳時間是在提取能力即將消失之際，超記系統(tǒng)依據(jù)的就是這一原理。另一方面，令人欣慰的是，提取能力與儲存能力的區(qū)分，也意味著就儲存能力而言，你可能并沒有真正忘記兒時學(xué)的法語。它仍然儲存在什么地方，你需要做的只是學(xué)著把它提取出來。
用超記系統(tǒng)幫助學(xué)法語或者做其他記憶練習(xí)并不一定能增加大腦的靈活性，使你再也不會忘記為什么到起居室之類的事情。大腦和肌肉一樣“越用越靈活”的觀點還遠(yuǎn)未被確證；也沒有過硬的證據(jù)證明使用大腦訓(xùn)練軟件或每天做填字游戲等活動的益處。但是大腦象肌肉一樣這種比喻說明，人們在涉及自己的親身經(jīng)歷時，并不要求嚴(yán)格的科學(xué)證據(jù)。人們感覺這是真的，”大腦練習(xí)“帶給人們快樂，這就夠了。其實，大腦保健的最佳方法是體育鍛煉、健康的飲食和充足的睡眠，而幸福的人更可能做到這些。另外，還有一項研究認(rèn)為多社交有助于增強(qiáng)記憶力。就目前能得到的證據(jù)來看，我對此是半信半疑的。不知道那位離群索居的Wozniak 對此有何感想。 原文作者： Oliver Burkeman
