Interference:Does learning new things block your old memories?(1)干扰:学习新东西会阻断旧记忆吗?(一)

Do you remeber what you had for dinner two weeks ago? Now choose your favorite trip from a couple of years ago.How much do you remember from that trip?The chances are that you do not remember what you had for dinner but you do remember something about your trip, although it took place much earlier than the meal.
你还记得两周之前的晚饭吃的什么吗?现在从之前几年挑选你最喜欢的一次旅行，你还记得多少?很可能你已经不记得晚饭吃了什么，但能清楚地回忆起旅途中发生的事情，尽管它发生的时间比两周前的那顿饭早得多。

This example shows that forgetting is not simply memories decaying with time.Our memories crucially depend on cues.A cue is essentially anything (such as a physical object, situation, time period, word, question, concept etc.) which is paired with a memoery trace and which must be activated for the memoery trace to be retrieved.
这个例子表明，遗忘并不仅仅是记忆随时间消退。我们的记忆非常依赖线索。线索本质上可以是与一段记忆痕迹相对应的任何东西(例如一个实体物品、一个情境、一段时间、一个词、一个问题、一个概念等等)，只有先启动线索，才能检索到对应的记忆痕迹。

If we pair the same cues with multiple memory traces then it will be difficult to retrieve one particular trace because once the cue is activated, the activation will spread to all paired memory traces at once and these will compete for entry to consciousness.
如果我们给同一个线索匹配了多个不同的记忆痕迹，那么将很难检索到特定的某个痕迹，因为当线索被激活时，激活信号会立刻传播到所有对应的记忆痕迹，它们相互竞争，看谁能够进入显意识。

Coming back to the example above, if you usually dine in the same place, many different meals will become associated with the same cues(the dining environment).Therefore, it will be hard to retrieve the specific meal that you enjoyed a week ago.In contrast, you probably have not been on the same trip many times before, therefore it is easier to remember its details because they context of the trip is not paired with any other memories.
回到上面的例子，如果你经常在同一个地方吃饭，那么许多顿不同的饭都会关联到同样的线索(就餐环境)，因此就很难检索到一周之前你享用的特定一顿饭的记忆。相反，你之前不太可能已经把同一段旅程走了很多遍，所以回想起旅途中的细节要容易得多，因为旅程的背景没有关联到任何其他记忆。

The disruption of memories by other memories which are paired to the same cues is called ‘interference’. you may have experienced interference yourself if you ever studied a second language.Interference may have caused you to be unable to retrieve vocabulary from one language.Instead, vocabulary from the other language popped to your mind.In this case, interference did not necessarily cause a loss of memory, but the memory trace became blocked thus temporarily inaccessible.
由于其他记忆痕迹关联到同一个线索，导致原有的记忆被打乱，这种情况被称作“干扰"。如果你曾学过外语，那么或许已经遇到过这种现象。记忆干扰可能让你无法想起一种语言的单词，而另一种语言中的那个词却不停地蹦到你的脑海中。在这种情况下，干扰并不一定导致记忆丢失，但原来的记忆痕迹被阻断了，因此暂时无法重新想起。

Research has found that the only way to overcome blocking interference is by making conscious effort to recover the correct memory trace(and have patience as this may take some time).Interference may, however, also cause a permanent loss of memory.Scientists who study memory call this the retrieval-include forgetting effect(RIF).
研究发现，克服阻断干扰的唯一办法，就是有意识地努力恢复正确的记忆痕迹(而且要保持耐心，因为这可能会花些时间)。不过，干扰也可能导致永久性的记忆丢失。研究记忆的科学家将此称为检索引起的遗忘(RIF)。

As a demonstration, consider the following experiment: Students studied 10 geographical facts about each of 2 island(A and B). They subsequently practiced retrieving 5 out of 10 facts for island A. Afterwards, their knowledge of these facts was tested.
为了说明这种现象，考虑下面的试验:学生们先学习A和B两个岛的各10个地理知识。接下来，在关于岛A的 10个知识中，练习想起其中的5个。之后测试他们对这些知识的掌握程度。

What do you think happened to students’ memory about island A?
你认为学生对岛A相关知识的记忆会是什么情况?

Unsurprisingly, retrieval practice boosted retention for the 5 facts that were practiced(the percentage of correct answers was greater than for island B).However, it also worsened the memory for the 5 facts about island A that were not practiced(again compared to island B). What caused this effect?
不出意料，检索练习增强了所练习的5个知识的记忆(正确率高于岛B的相关知识)，但这也使学生对岛A没有得到练习的5个知识的记忆变差了。这是什么原因呢?

The island A serves as the context cue for information about island A, whereas island B serves as the context cue for information about island B. When the 5 facts about island A were retrieved from memory, their connection with the context cue was strengthed and the connection of the remaining 5 facts with the context cue was weakened(see “Testing effect”).
岛A是关于岛A的相关信息的背景线索，岛B也是关于岛 B的相关信息的背景线索。在从记忆中检索关于岛A的5个知识时，它们与背景线索之间的联系被加强了，而剩下5个知识与背景线索之间的联系则被削弱了(参见“测试效应”)。

The main implication of this study for learning is that selective practice testing substantially boosts performance for the practice items but can also worsen the performance for the unpracticed items.How can we combat forgetting caused by interference?
这项研究对于学习的一个主要启示在于，选择性练习测试能够大幅提高所练习项目的记忆表现但同时也会削弱对于未练习项目的记忆表现。我们怎样才能克服干扰导致的遗忘呢?

One way we can overcome interference is by making it explicit.If there are concepts that you get mixed up frequently then put them side by side and re-study them at the same time.
克服干扰的一个办法是明确呈现出干扰。如果你经常弄混一些概念，那么就把它们放在一起，然后同时复习它们。

The general idea is that whatever you are studying, it is good practice to make different concepts as distinctive as possible.This forces your brain to encode them as dissimilar memory traces.You can achieve this by stressing the differences between different concepts from your study material(by comparing and constrasting, for instance).
总体思想是，不论学习什么，让不同概念尽可能区分开来都是个好办法，因为这会强迫你的大脑把它们编码成不相似的记忆痕迹。为此，你可以强调学习材料中不同概念之间的差异(例如通过比较和对比)。

Another effective strategy is to integrate the concepts.For instance, if you are memorizing the members of a particular animal/plant family, then try to find all possible relations between the members.When you’re later retrieving these members, they will no longer compete for access to consciousness as they will be encoded closely together in an integrative manner.Instead of on concept blocking the other, they will be retrieved simultaneously.
另一个有效的办法是把多个概念整合起来。例如，如果你在记忆特定动物/植物家族的成员，则试着找出这些成员之间所有可能的关联。等你日后要检索这些成员的记忆时，它们就不再为进入你的意识相互竞争，而是以一种整体的形式被紧密地编码在一起。如此就不再是一个概念阻断其他概念，而是会被一起检索出来。