The Science Behind Forgetting遗忘背后的科学道理

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.

你有沒有过走进一个房间却忘记了你需要什么，或者打开冰箱却忘记了你在找什么食物的经历？

由于你在学习上花了大量的时间，你可能发现自己已经忘记了必须做的其他所有事情。所以这也许会让你思考：遗忘背后的科学道理是什么？你眼下遗忘的每一件小事都有什么原因？

也许你的大脑一次只能处理这么多东西，也许你只是一个健忘的人。心理学家赫尔曼·艾宾浩斯在他的研究中发现，在阅读资料的20 分钟内，人们通常会忘记所学或所读的内容的42%。在1 小时内，人们会忘记的内容多达56%。

有三种常见的解释：第一种是在没有某种提醒的情况下无法回忆起一段记忆。例如，你不记得某个歌手的名字，但当他的歌声响起时，你突然就想起来了。第二种发生在相似的想法或记忆被混淆的时候。最后一种发生在你无法将信息从短期记忆转变为长期记忆的时候。

然而，科学家表示，遗忘可能实际上是大脑处理输入信息的策略。我们的大脑不是用来记忆一切的文件柜，而是用来做出明智决定的计算机。

但愿你的大脑会在考试中快速运转并记起一些东西。

Notes

1. amount  数量；量

2. forgetfulness  健忘；忽略

3. psychologist 心理学家

4. explanation  解释；说明

5. reminder  提醒物；引起回忆的事物

6. confused 困惑的；混乱的

7. strategy   策略

8. file  文件夹. 归档；存档

9. cabinet  陈列柜

10. kick into gear 开始运作