Imagine yourself learning how to ride a bike. You could buy a 200-page long book on cycling and memorize everything perfectly. If you were to sit a written test, you would ace it.
假設要學習如何騎車,你可以買一本花兩百頁講述如何騎車的書,滾瓜爛熟地記住所有事項。如果你要參加一場筆試,那可能會取得好成績。
Now imagine that you were to actually ride your bike. What do you think would happen? The chances are that you would crash as soon as you got on your bike.
現(xiàn)在假設真的要騎自行車,你覺得會發(fā)生什么?很有可能你一上車就會摔倒。
Although you knew everything you could about cycling, a key element was missing. The reason for the crash is that the cognitive processes used during during encoding did not match (=transfer appropriately to) the processes needed during retrieval. To remember effectively, the processes used during practice need to correspond with the processes during use.
盡管你知道關于騎車的一切知識,但是少了一個關鍵要素。你之所以會摔倒,是因為編碼時所用到的認知過程與檢索記憶時所需要的認知過程不匹配(即無法正確地遷移)。為了有效地記住,練習時所用的信息加工過程需要和使用時的信息加工過程相匹配。
As an illustration, consider the following study:
為了說明,考慮下面這個研究的例子:
Researchers asked students to either read aloud a list of words (superficial processing), or to generate these words from their antonyms (deep processing). The students were later asked which words they could remember (free-recall) or to fill in missing letters in words (fragment completion).
研究人員要求學生大聲讀出一組詞(淺層加工),或者從它們的反義詞想到這些詞(深度加工)。之后問學生他們能記起哪些詞(自由回憶),或要求他們填上單詞中缺失的字母(殘詞補全)。
One would expect that the superficially-processing students would underperform in both tests (because deep processing is generally better than superficial processing – see previous section). However, this was the case only for the free-recall test. Surprisingly, in fragment completion, the superficial-processing group was better than the deep-processing group.
人們可能預期,淺層加工的學生在兩項測試中都表現(xiàn)較差(因為深度加工的記憶效果通常好于淺層加工——詳見上文)。然而這僅對自由回憶測試成立。令人吃驚的是,在殘詞補全測試中,淺層加工組的表現(xiàn)要好于深度加工組。
What could explain this surprising result?
如何解釋這個令人驚訝的結(jié)果?
The reading group processed the words perceptually, while the generating group processed them semantically – they had to retrieve from memory words with a particular meaning. Whereas perceptual processing matched the processing needed by the perceptual task, semantic processing matched the processing needed during recall (note that words are stored in semantic memory based on their meaning).
朗讀組是在視覺感知的層面上加工這些單詞,而反義詞組則是在語義上進行加工——他們在記憶中檢索有特定含義的單詞。感知層面的信息加工符合知覺任務所需的加工過程,而語義加工符合自由回想時所需要的加工過程(注意單詞是根據(jù)它們的含義存儲在語義記憶中的)。
The main implication of this study is that although deep processing is extremely beneficial for memory, it may not be enough to fully optimize your test performance. To further improve your results, it is important that you practice with similar processing that will be required during the test.
這個研究的主要意義在于,盡管深度加工對記憶極有好處,但它還不足以讓你在考試中表現(xiàn)最好。要進一步提高考試成績,重要的是練習與考試類似的信息加工過程。
Think hard about how you will be tested on the information you need to remember. Will it be multiple choice tests? Essay questions? Applied in real life problems? Then make your practice match the situation where you use it. Mismatched practice is a major cause of poor memories–they simply aren't encoded in a way that is useful.
仔細想想要記住的那些信息會怎么考查?是多項選擇題?簡答題?還是實際應用題?然后使你的練習與應用的情形相配。不相配的練習是記憶不佳的主要原因——他們只是沒有按照有用的方式編碼。
If your exam will consist of writing an essay, an excellent strategy is to do your reading with pre-reading questions. Pre-reading questions force you look for arguments and evidence in order to answer the questions, which are precisely the processes that you will need during your essay-type exam.
如果你的考試包括寫作題,一個很棒的策略是帶著預讀問題來閱讀。預讀問題迫使你在閱讀過程中尋找觀點和證據(jù)來回答問題,而這正是你在寫作類考試中所需要的信息加工過程。
However, it turns out that transfer-appropriate processing is only one consideration that matters for memory. This is because some encoding strategies are generally better than others, regardless of whether they match the test format or not. In fact, one specific encoding strategy dominates almost all other strategies. This strategy is called “recall” and is discussed later.
然而,適合遷移的信息加工只是影響記憶的一個考慮,因為有些編碼方法普遍強于其他方法,而不論是否與考試形式相匹配。事實上,有一種編碼策略強過幾乎所有其他策略,那就是“回想”,我們會在下文討論它。
In summary, if you are going to take a test of a particular format (such as an essay format), the best approach is to reap the benefits of multiple strategies. Whereas practicing with the final test format will teach you to processes the material in the way required by the test, recall will lead to most effective encoding. Therefore, ideally you should:
總結(jié)起來,如果你要參加某種特定形式的考試(例如寫文章),最好的方法就是集采各種策略之長。根據(jù)最終考試的形式進行練習,能夠教你按照考試所需的方式加工材料,而回想能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)最有效的信息編碼。因此,理想情況下你應該:
·Spend about 1/4 of your time practicing with the final test format (e.g. multiple choice)
·用大約1/4的時間按最終考試的形式(例如多項選擇)進行練習
·Spend the remaining 3/4 practicing with recall combined with deep-processing techniques
·余下的3/4時間使用回想和其他深度加工方法。
——節(jié)選自《記憶的科學》