The Science Behind Forgetting遺忘背后的科學(xué)道理

Lilli Scott

Have you ever walked into a room only to forget what you needed， or openedthe fridge only to forget what food you were looking for？

With the amount1 of time you have spent studying， you may have foundyourself forgetting about everything else you have to do. So it may get youthinking. What is the science behind forgetfulness2？ Is there a reason you areforgetting every little thing at the moment？

Maybe your brain can only deal with so much at one time， or maybe you arejust a forgetful person. Psychologist3 Hermann Ebbinghaus found in his researchthat within about 20 minutes of reading the paper， people often forget about 42%of what they learned or read. Within 1 hour people can forget up to 56%.

There are three common explanations4. The first is the failure to recall amemory without some kind of reminder5. An example of this is when you cannotremember the name of a certain singer but when one of his songs comes on， yousuddenly remember. The second happens when similar thoughts or memories getconfused6. The last happens when you simply fail to move the information fromyour short term to your long-term memory.

However， scientists say that forgetting may actually be the brains strategy7for processing incoming information. Our brain is not a filing8 cabinet9 toremember everything but a computer for making smart decisions.

Hopefully， your brain will kick itself into gear10 and remember some thingsduring your exams though.

你有沒(méi)有過(guò)走進(jìn)一個(gè)房間卻忘記了你需要什么，或者打開(kāi)冰箱卻忘記了你在找什么食物的經(jīng)歷？

由于你在學(xué)習(xí)上花了大量的時(shí)間，你可能發(fā)現(xiàn)自己已經(jīng)忘記了必須做的其他所有事情。所以這也許會(huì)讓你思考：遺忘背后的科學(xué)道理是什么？你眼下遺忘的每一件小事都有什么原因？

也許你的大腦一次只能處理這么多東西，也許你只是一個(gè)健忘的人。心理學(xué)家赫爾曼·艾賓浩斯在他的研究中發(fā)現(xiàn)，在閱讀資料的20 分鐘內(nèi)，人們通常會(huì)忘記所學(xué)或所讀的內(nèi)容的42%。在1 小時(shí)內(nèi)，人們會(huì)忘記的內(nèi)容多達(dá)56%。

有三種常見(jiàn)的解釋?zhuān)旱谝环N是在沒(méi)有某種提醒的情況下無(wú)法回憶起一段記憶。例如，你不記得某個(gè)歌手的名字，但當(dāng)他的歌聲響起時(shí)，你突然就想起來(lái)了。第二種發(fā)生在相似的想法或記憶被混淆的時(shí)候。最后一種發(fā)生在你無(wú)法將信息從短期記憶轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)殚L(zhǎng)期記憶的時(shí)候。

然而，科學(xué)家表示，遺忘可能實(shí)際上是大腦處理輸入信息的策略。我們的大腦不是用來(lái)記憶一切的文件柜，而是用來(lái)做出明智決定的計(jì)算機(jī)。

但愿你的大腦會(huì)在考試中快速運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)并記起一些東西。

Notes

1. amount? 數(shù)量；量

2. forgetfulness? 健忘；忽略

3. psychologist 心理學(xué)家

4. explanation? 解釋?zhuān)徽f(shuō)明

5. reminder? 提醒物；引起回憶的事物

6. confused 困惑的；混亂的

7. strategy? ?策略

8. file? 文件夾. 歸檔；存檔

9. cabinet? 陳列柜

10. kick into gear 開(kāi)始運(yùn)作