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.
假设要学习如何骑车,你可以买一本花两百页讲述如何骑车的书,滚瓜烂熟地记住所有事项。如果你要参加一场笔试,那可能会取得好成绩。
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.
现在假设真的要骑自行车,你觉得会发生什么?很有可能你一上车就会摔倒。
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 encoding did not match(-transfer appropriately to) the processes needed during retrievel. To remember effectively, the processes used during practice need to correspond with the processes during use.
尽管你知道关于骑车的一切知识,但是少了一个关键要素。你之所以会摔倒,是因为编码时所用到的认知过程与检索记忆时所需要的认知过程不匹配(即无法正确地迁移)。为了有效地记住,练习时所用的信息加工过程需要和使用时的信息加工过程相匹配。
As an illustration, consider the following study:
为了说明,考虑下面这个研究的例子:
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)
研究人员要求学生大声读出一组词(浅层加工)或者从它们的反义词想到这些词(深度加工)。之后问学生他们能记起哪些词(自由回忆),或要求他们填上单词中缺失的字母(残词补全)。
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.
人们可能预期,浅层加工的学生在两项测试中都表现较差(因为深度加工的记忆效果通常好于浅层加工–详见上文)。 然而这仅对自由回忆测试成立。令人吃惊的是,在残词补全测试中,浅层加工组的表现要好于深度加工组。
What could explain this surprising result?
如何解释这个令人惊讶的结果?
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).
朗读组是在视觉感知的层面上加工这些单词,而反义词组则是在语义上进行加工–他们在记忆中检索有特定含义的单词。感知层面的信息加工符合知觉任务所需的加工过程,而语义加工符合自由回想时所需要的加工过程(注意单词是根据它们的含义存储在语义记忆中的)。
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.
这个研究的主要意义在于,尽管深度加工对记忆极有好处,但它还不足以让你在考试中表现最好。要进一步提高考试成绩,重要的是练习与考试类似的信息加工过程。
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.
仔细想想要记住的那些信息会怎么考查?是多项选择题?简答题?还是实际应用题?然后使你的练习与应用的情形相配。不相配的练习是记忆不佳的主要原因–他们只是没有按照有用的方式编码。
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.
如果你的考试包括写作题,一个很棒的策略是带着预读问题来阅读。预读问题迫使你在阅读过程中寻找观点和证据来回答问题,而这正是你在写作类考试中所需要的信息加工过程。
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,适合迁移的信息加工只是影响记忆的一个考虑,因为有些编码方法普遍强于其他方法,而不论是否与考试形式相匹配。事实上,有一种编码策略强过几乎所有其他策略,那就是“回想"我们会在下文讨论它。
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:
总结起来,如果你要参加某种特定形式的考试(例如写文章),最好的方法就是集采各种策略之长。根据最终考试的形式进行练习,能够教你按照考试所需的方式加工材料,而回想能够实现最有效的信息编码。因此,理想情况下你应该:
Spend about 1/4 of your time practicing with the final test format(e.g. multiple choice)
用大约 1/4的时间按最终考试的形式(例如多项选择)进行练习
Spend the remaining 3/4 practicing with recall combined with deep-processing techiques
余下的 3/4时间使用回想和其他深度加工方法。