異類之不一樣的成功啟示錄 第156期:記憶與語言的關系

Take the following list of numbers: 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 7, 6. Spend 20 seconds memorizing that sequence before saying them out loud again.

看看下面的數(shù)字：4、8、5、3、9、7、6，將它們大聲讀出來，然后背過臉去，用20秒來仔細回憶，然后再按正確的順序大聲讀出來。

If you speak English, you have about a 50 percent chance of remembering that sequence perfectly.

如果英語是你的母語，那么復述正確的機率將是50%。

If you're Chinese, though, you're almost certain to get it right every time. What is that?

如果你是中國人，那么正確率幾乎可以達到100%。為什么會這樣？

Because as human beings, we store digits in a memory loop that runs for about two seconds.

因為人類存儲數(shù)字的記憶循環(huán)（memory loop）是2秒鐘，

We most easily memorize whatever we can say or read within that two-second span.

我們可以很容易地記住我們在2秒鐘內所說的話或所讀到的內容。

And Chinese speakers get that list of numbers—4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 7, 6—right every time,

當中國人在讀“4、8、5、3、9、7、6”這一串數(shù)字時，每次剛好都是2秒鐘。

because unlike English speakers, their language allows them to fit all those seven numbers into two seconds.

與英語不同，漢語中7個數(shù)字的發(fā)音只需要2秒鐘的時間。

That example comes from Stanislas Dehaene's book The Number Sense.

這個例子選自斯塔尼斯拉斯·德阿納（Stanislas Dehaene）的《數(shù)感》（The Number Sense）一書，

An as Dehaene explains: Chinese number words are remarkably brief.

在書中，德阿納解釋道：中國的數(shù)字非常簡易。

Most of them can be uttered in less than one quarter second. For instance, four is "si" and seven "qi".

大多數(shù)數(shù)字的發(fā)音只有四分之一秒（舉個例子來說，“4”的讀音是“si”，而“7”的讀音是“qi”），

Their English equivalence, four, seven, are longer: pronouncing them takes about one third of a second.

他們相當于英語中的“four”和“seven”，seven聽起來似乎還要長，這些數(shù)字的發(fā)音需要三分之一秒。

The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently is entirely due to this difference in length.

英語和漢語語言長度上的差異，造成了英語和漢語在記憶上的時間差距。

In languages as perse as Welsh, Arabic, Chinese, English and Hebrew,

語言被區(qū)分成很多種，如威爾士語、阿拉伯語、漢語、英語和希伯來語。

there is a reproducible corelation between the time required to pronounce numbers in a given language and the memory span of its speakers.

講話者的記憶能力通常同他輸出數(shù)字時所需時間長短有因果關聯(lián)。

In this domain, the prize for efficacy goes to the Cantonese dialect of Chinese, whose brevity grants residents of Hong Kong a rocketing memory span of about ten digits.

在這個領域里，最佳記憶力的獎項要頒發(fā)給講粵語的中國人。語言上的優(yōu)勢使得香港人獲得了超群的記憶能力，他們甚至可以用1秒鐘記住10個數(shù)字。

It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed.

這也同樣表明，在數(shù)字符號體系方面，西方國家和亞洲國家有很大的差別。

In English, we say 14, 16, 17, 18, and 19.

在英語中，我們把“14、16、17、18、19”稱做“fourteen、sixteen、seventeen、eighteen、nineteen”。