雙語·激活擴(kuò)散：獲得對記憶的快速訪問

Spreading activation: Gain quick access to your memory
激活擴(kuò)散：獲得對記憶的快速訪問

Imagine that you are preparing for a test on all capital cities in the world (given a country, you have to state the capital). If you used the most basic learning strategy, you would simply learn to match each country with its corresponding capital. Alternatively, you could look at pictures taken from these capitals, maybe watch short videos of people speaking the country's language, visiting the capital sights and so on.
假設(shè)你在準(zhǔn)備一場關(guān)于世界上所有首都的考試（給出一個(gè)國家，你需要說出它的首都）。如果使用最基礎(chǔ)的學(xué)習(xí)策略，可能就只是學(xué)習(xí)把每個(gè)國家與它的首都對應(yīng)起來。換另一種方法，你也可以欣賞這些首都的照片，觀看說這些國家語言的人拍攝的短視頻，參觀首都的景點(diǎn)，等等。

Which strategy would be more effective?
哪種策略會更有效？

The first strategy would be called ‘shallow’ processing because you would not be giving the information any additional meaning. You would be making only one connection between the cues (countries) and the target memories (cities). The second strategy would be called ‘deep’ processing as you would be drawing many connections – between the capital, the country, its people and its sights, and so on.
第一種策略被稱作“淺層”加工，因?yàn)槟悴粫o信息賦予任何額外的意義，在線索（國家）與目標(biāo)記憶（城市）之間只建立了一個(gè)聯(lián)系。第二種策略被稱作“深層”加工，因?yàn)槟銜谑锥?、國家、?dāng)?shù)氐娜嗣窈途坝^等等事物之間建立許多聯(lián)系。

If you adopted the second strategy, you would be making use of the structure of your memory. Memory is believed to operate on the principle of spreading activation. If you encounter one concept (a country), the neural pathways representing this concept are activated in your brain. As a consequence, nearby neural pathways encoding closely related concepts are also activated. Images and ideas come to your mind. For instance, when someone says France, you may visualize the French flag, the Eiffel tower, French wine, cheese, etc. This process continues to further and further concepts until you start thinking about something else.
如果采取第二種策略，就會利用到記憶的結(jié)構(gòu)。人們認(rèn)為記憶的運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)遵循激活擴(kuò)散的原則。如果你遇到一個(gè)概念（一個(gè)國家），大腦中代表這個(gè)概念的神經(jīng)通路就會被激活，周圍編碼其他密切相關(guān)概念的神經(jīng)通路也會被激活，然后圖像和想法就會進(jìn)入你的大腦。例如，當(dāng)有人說法國時(shí)，你眼前可能浮現(xiàn)出法國國旗、埃菲爾鐵塔、法國紅酒、奶酪等等。這個(gè)過程會繼續(xù)，不斷延伸到更多想法，直到你開始想起其他事情。

If you previously connected these images with both France and Paris, the cue France will activate additional related cues (Eiffel tower, wine, cheese, etc.) and together they will generate more activation than France alone, which spreads to the connected memory trace – Paris. Conversely, if you studied the France-Paris pairing superficially, seeing the word France might not generate sufficient activation on its own to trigger the memory trace of Paris.
如果你之前把這些形象同時(shí)關(guān)聯(lián)到法國和巴黎，那么法國這個(gè)線索還會激活其他相關(guān)的線索（埃菲爾鐵塔、紅酒、奶酪等等），而它們共同作用，會產(chǎn)生比法國單獨(dú)一個(gè)線索更多的激活，然后擴(kuò)散到相聯(lián)系的記憶痕跡——巴黎。相反，如果你只是表淺地學(xué)習(xí)了法國—巴黎這一對關(guān)系，僅僅看到法國這個(gè)詞本身，或許就無法產(chǎn)生足夠的激活來觸發(fā)關(guān)于巴黎的記憶痕跡。

The main implication of spreading-activation is that in order to maximize the chances of remembering new concepts, you should try to make as many connections as possible between the new concepts and what you already know. If the target concept is connected to many other concepts, the chances of it getting activated (and retrieved) are generally much higher than if it only has few connections.
激活擴(kuò)散的主要影響在于，為了最大可能地記住新概念，你應(yīng)當(dāng)嘗試在新概念與已知事物之間建立盡可能多的聯(lián)系。如果目標(biāo)概念與其他許多概念都有聯(lián)系，那么它被激活（并被檢索到）的概率一般比只有很少幾個(gè)聯(lián)系的情況要大得多。

In summary, we recommend the following:
總結(jié)起來，我們推薦以下做法：

·When learning a new concept, connect it to the things that you already know
·學(xué)習(xí)一個(gè)新概念時(shí)，將它與已知事物建立聯(lián)系。

·The more connections you make between the new concept and old concepts, the more easily it will be to remember the new concept
·新舊概念之間建立的聯(lián)系越多，新概念就越容易被記住。

——節(jié)選自《記憶的科學(xué)》