记忆（英汉对照）
文摘
2024-10-04 07:02
江苏
Every hour of our lives we call upon memory to supply us
with some fact or detail from out our past. Let memory wholly fail us, and we
find ourselves helpless and out of joint in a world we fail to understand. A
poor memory handicaps one in the pursuit of education, hampers him in business
or professional success, and puts him at a disadvantage in every relation of
life. On the other hand, a good memory
is an asset on which the owner realizes anew each succeeding day.我们生命中的每一个小时，我们都在呼唤记忆，从我们的过去中提供一些事实或细节。如果记忆完全失效，我们会发现自己在一个无法理解的世界中无助和脱节。记忆力差会妨碍一个人追求教育，阻碍他在商业或职业上的成功，并在生活的每一种关系中使他处于劣势。另一方面，良好的记忆力是一项资产，拥有者在每一天都能重新意识到它的价值。Now that you come to think of it, you can recall
perfectly well that Columbus discovered America in 1492; that your house is
painted white; that it rained a week ago today. But where were these once-known
facts, now remembered so easily, while they were out of your mind? Where did
they stay while you were not thinking of them? The common answer is,
"Stored away in my memory." Yet
no one believes that the memory is a warehouse of facts which we pack away
there when we for a time have no use for them, as we store away our old
furniture.现在你一想起来，就能完美地回忆起哥伦布在1492年发现了美洲；你的房子被漆成了白色；一周前的今天下了雨。但是这些曾经知道、现在又轻松回忆起来的事实，在它们不在你脑海中的时候都去了哪里？当你没有想起它们的时候，它们停留在哪里？常见的回答是，“储存在我的记忆中。”然而，没有人相信记忆是一个事实的仓库，当我们暂时用不到它们时，就像我们存放旧家具一样将它们打包放在那里。What is Retained.—The truth is that the
simple question I asked you is by no means an easy one, and I will161 answer it myself by asking you an
easier one: As we sit with the sunlight streaming into our room, where is the
darkness which filled it last night? And where will all this light be at
midnight tonight? Answer these questions, and the ones I asked about your
remembered facts will be answered. While it is true that, regardless of the
conditions in our little room, darkness still exists wherever there is no
light, and light still exists wherever there is no darkness, yet for this
particular room there is no darkness when the sun shines in,
and there is no light when the room is filled with darkness. So in
the case of a remembered fact. Although the fact that Columbus discovered
America some four hundred years ago, that your house is of a white color, that
it rained a week ago today, exists as a fact regardless of whether your minds
think of these things at all, yet the truth remains as before: for the
particular mind which remembers these things, the facts did not exist
while they were out of the mind.保留的是什么。——事实是，我向你提出的简单问题绝非易事，我将通过问你一个更简单的来回答我自己：当我们坐在阳光洒满房间时，昨晚充满房间的黑暗在哪里？今晚午夜时分，所有这些光将在哪里？回答这些问题，我所问的关于你记忆中的事实的问题也将得到解答。尽管无论我们这个小房间的条件如何，只要没有光的地方就有黑暗，只要没有黑暗的地方就有光，但对于这个特定的房间来说，当太阳照进来时就没有黑暗，当房间里充满黑暗时也就没有光。所以对于记忆中的事实也是如此。尽管哥伦布大约四百年前发现美洲、你的房子是白色的、一周前的今天下雨这些事实，无论你的头脑是否想到这些事情，它们作为事实依然存在，但真相依旧如前所述：对于记住这些事情的特定心灵而言，当这些事实不在脑海中时，它们并不存在。It is not the remembered fact which is
retained, but
the power to reproduce the fact when we require it.保留的不是被记住的事实，而是我们在需要时再现该事实的能力。The Physical Basis of Memory.—The power to reproduce a
once-known fact depends ultimately on the brain. This is not hard to understand
if we go back a little and consider that brain activity was concerned in every
perception we have ever had, and in every fact we have ever known. Indeed, it
was through a certain neural activity of the cortex that you were able
originally to know that Columbus discovered America, that your house is white,
and that it rained on a day in the past. Without this cortical activity, these
facts would have existed just as truly, but you would never
have known them. Without this neural activity in the brain there is no
consciousness, and to it we must look for the recurrence162 in consciousness of remembered
facts, as well as for those which appear for the first time.记忆的物理基础。——再现已知事实的能力最终依赖于大脑。如果我们稍微回顾一下，考虑到我们曾经有过的每一个感知和每一个已知的事实都与大脑活动有关，这一点就不难理解了。实际上，正是通过皮层的某种神经活动，你最初才知道哥伦布发现了美洲，你的房子是白色的，以及过去某一天曾下过雨。如果没有这种皮层活动，这些事实依然会存在，但你永远不会知道它们的存在。没有大脑中的这种神经活动，就没有意识，我们必须依靠它来寻找记忆中的事实在意识中重现，以及那些首次出现的事实。How We Remember.—Now, if we are to have a
once-known fact repeated in consciousness, or in other words remembered,
what we must do on the physiological side is to provide for a repetition of the
neural activity which was at first responsible for the fact's appearing in
consciousness. The mental accompaniment of the repeated activity is the
memory. Thus, as memory is the approximate repetition of
once-experienced mental states or facts, together with the recognition of their
belonging to our past, so it is
accomplished by an approximate repetition of the once-performed neural process
in the cortex which originally accompanied these states or facts.我们如何记忆。——现在，如果我们要在意识中重复一个已知的事实，或者换句话说，要记住它，我们在生理方面必须做的是提供一种重复最初负责该事实出现在意识中的神经活动。这种重复活动的心智伴随物就是记忆。因此，正如记忆是对曾经经历过的心理状态或事实的近似重复，并伴随着对它们属于我们过去的认知，所以它是通过在皮层中近似地重复最初伴随这些状态或事实的神经过程来实现的。The part played by the brain in memory makes it easy to
understand why we find it so impossible to memorize or to recall when the brain
is fatigued from long hours of work or lack of sleep. It also explains the derangement in memory that often comes from an
injury to the brain, or from the toxins of alcohol, drugs or disease.大脑在记忆中扮演的角色使我们很容易理解为什么当我们的大脑因长时间工作或缺乏睡眠而疲劳时，记忆或回忆变得如此困难。这也解释了为什么脑部受伤、酒精、药物或疾病毒素常常会导致记忆混乱。Dependence of Memory on Brain Quality.—Differences in memory
ability, while depending in part on the training memory receives, rest
ultimately on the memory-quality of the brain. James tells us that four
distinct types of brains may be distinguished, and he describes them as
follows:记忆对大脑质量的依赖性。——记忆能力的差异部分取决于记忆所接受的训练，但最终依赖于大脑的记忆质量。詹姆斯告诉我们，可以区分出四种不同类型的大脑，他这样描述它们：(1) Likemarble to receive and
like marble to retain.
(2) Like wax to receive and like wax to
retain.
(3) Like marble to receive and like wax to
retain.
(4) Like wax to receive and like marble to
retain.（1）像大理石一样接受信息，也像大理石一样保留信息。The first type gives
us those who memorize slowly and with much heroic effort, but who keep well
what they163 have committed.The second type
represents the ones who learn in a flash, who can cram up a lesson in a few
minutes, but who forget as easily and as quickly as they learn. The third type
characterizes the unfortunates who must labor hard and long for what they
memorize, only to see it quickly slipping from their grasp. The fourth type is a rare boon to its
possessor, enabling him easily to stock his memory with valuable material,
which is readily available to him upon demand.第一种类型给我们展示了那些记忆缓慢且需要付出巨大努力的人，但他们能够很好地保留住他们所记住的内容。第二种类型代表了那些瞬间学会的人，他们可以在几分钟内快速掌握一课内容，但忘记的速度和学习的速度一样快。第三种类型描述了那些不幸的人，他们必须长时间辛苦劳作才能记住东西，但很快这些内容就会从他们的脑海中溜走。第四种类型是其拥有者的罕见福气，使他能够轻松地将有价值的材料储存在记忆中，并且在需要时随时可用。The particular type of brain we possess is given us
through heredity, and we can do little or nothing to change the type. Whatever
our type of brain, however, we can do much to improve our memory by obeying the
laws upon which all good memory depends.我们所拥有的特定类型的大脑是通过遗传获得的，我们几乎无法改变这种类型。然而，无论我们的大脑类型如何，我们都可以通过遵循所有良好记忆所依赖的法则来大大改善我们的记忆。2. THE FOUR FACTORS INVOLVED IN MEMORYNothing is more obvious than that memory cannot return to
us what has never been given into its keeping, what has not been retained, or
what for any reason cannot be recalled. Further, if the facts given back by
memory are not recognized as belonging to our past, memory would be incomplete.
Memory, therefore, involves the following four factors: (1)registration, (2) retention,
(3) recall, (4) recognition.没有什么比记忆无法归还那些从未被其保管、未被保留，或因任何原因无法回忆的事物更加显而易见的了。此外，如果记忆归还的事实不被识别为我们过去的一部分，那么记忆就是不完整的。因此，记忆涉及以下四个因素：(1) 登记，(2) 保留，(3) 回忆，(4) 识别。Registration.—By registration we mean the learning or committing of the matter to
be remembered. On the brain side this involves
producing in the appropriate neurones the activities which, when repeated again
later, cause the fact to be recalled. It is this process that constitutes what
we call "impressing the facts upon the brain."登记。——我们所说的登记，是指学习和记忆要被记住的事项。在大脑层面，这涉及到在适当的神经元中产生活动，这些活动在以后重复时会导致事实被回忆起来。正是这个过程构成了我们所说的“将事实铭记于脑”。Nothing is more fatal to good memory than partial or
faulty registration. A thing but half
learned is sure164 to be
forgotten. We often stop in the mastery of a lesson just short of the full
impression needed for permanent retention and sure recall. We sometimes say to our teachers, "I
cannot remember," when, as a matter of fact, we have never learned the
thing we seek to recall.（R：We should provide opportunities for students to understand the
learning materials thoroughly, or else, it will be a great challenge for them
to recall what has been learned. It’s quite true that students should be
allowed to raise their questions and clarify their confusions. Unfortunately,
class observation shows that few of our teachers do it as a routine. Sep.15,
2024）对良好记忆来说，没有什么比部分或错误的登记更致命的了。一个只学了一半的东西肯定会被遗忘。我们常常在掌握一课时，没有达到永久保留和确切回忆所需的完整印象就停止了。有时我们会对我们的老师说：“我记不住，”而事实上，我们从未真正学通我们试图回忆的东西。Retention.—Retention, as we have
already seen, resides primarily in the brain. It is accomplished through the
law of habit working in the neurones of the cortex. Here, as elsewhere, habit makes an activity once performed more easy of
performance each succeeding time. Through this law a neural activity once
performed tends to be repeated; or, in other words, a fact once known in
consciousness tends to be remembered. That so large a part of our past is lost
in oblivion, and out of the reach of our memory, is probably much more largely
due to a failure to recall than to retain. We say
that we have forgotten a fact or a name which we cannot recall, try as hard as
we may; yet surely all have had the experience of a long-striven-for fact
suddenly appearing in our memory when we had given it up and no longer had use
for it. It was retained all the time, else it never could have come back at
all. （R:
What we have experienced is retained in our brain. There are no clues or
necessity for us to recall it. As a result, it seems to us that we have
forgotton it. The fact is exactly the opposite. 9: 19a.m.,Sep.15,2024）保留。——正如我们已经看到的，保留主要存在于大脑中。它是通过作用于大脑皮层神经元的习惯法则来实现的。在这里，就像在其他地方一样，习惯使得一旦完成的活动在随后的每次执行时变得更加容易。通过这一法则，一次进行的神经活动倾向于重复；或者换句话说，意识中已知的一个事实倾向于被记住。我们过去的很大一部分在遗忘中丢失，超出了记忆的范围，这很可能更多地是由于回忆失败而不是保留失败。我们会说我们忘记了一个事实或名字，尽管我们可能已经尽力去回忆了；然而，肯定所有人都有过这样的经历：当我们放弃并不再需要某个苦苦追求的事实时，它突然在我们的记忆中出现。这个事实一直被保留着，否则它根本不可能再回来。An aged man of my acquaintance lay on his deathbed. In
his childhood he had first learned to speak German; but, moving with his family
when he was eight or nine years of age to an English-speaking community, he had
lost his ability to speak German, and had been unable for a third of a century
to carry on a conversation in his mother tongue. Yet during the last days of
his sickness he lost almost wholly the power to use the English language, and
spoke fluently in German. During all these years his brain paths had retained
the power to reproduce the forgotten words, even165 though for so long a time the words
could not be recalled. James quotes a still more striking case of an aged woman
who was seized with a fever and, during her delirious ravings, was heard
talking in Latin, Hebrew and Greek. She herself could neither read nor write,
and the priests said she was possessed of a devil. But a physician unraveled
the mystery. When the girl was nine years of age, a pastor, who was a noted
scholar, had taken her into his home as a servant, and she had remained there
until his death. During this time she had daily heard him read aloud from his
books in these languages. Her brain had indelibly retained the record made upon
it, although for years she could not have recalled a sentence, if, indeed, she
had ever been able to do so.我认识的一个老人躺在临终的病床上。在他童年时，他首先学会了说德语；但是，当他八九岁时随家搬到了一个讲英语的社区后，他就失去了说德语的能力，而且在长达三分之一个世纪的时间里无法用他的母语进行交谈。然而，在生病的最后几天里，他几乎完全丧失了使用英语的能力，却能流利地说德语。这些年来，他的大脑路径保留了重现被遗忘词汇的能力，即使这些词汇长时间无法被回忆起。詹姆斯引用了一个更为惊人的案例：一位年迈的妇女患上了发烧，在她神志不清的胡言乱语中，人们听到她用拉丁语、希伯来语和希腊语说话。她自己既不会读也不会写，牧师们说她被恶魔附身了。但一位医生解开了这个谜团。当这个女孩九岁时，一位著名的学者牧师将她收为仆人，并让她一直待到他去世。在这段时间里，她每天都听到他用这些语言大声朗读书籍。尽管多年来她可能从未能够回忆起一个句子（如果她确实曾经能够做到的话），但她的大脑不可磨灭地保留了这段记录。Recall.—Recall depends entirely on association.
There is no way to arrive at a certain fact or name that is eluding us except
by means of some other facts, names, or what-not so related to the missing term
as to be able to bring it into the fold. Memory
arrives at any desired fact only over a bridge of associations. It
therefore follows that the more associations set up between the fact to be
remembered and related facts already in the mind, the more certain the recall.
Historical dates and events should when learned be associated with important
central dates and events to which they naturally attach. Geographical names,
places or other information should be connected with related material already
in the mind. Scientific knowledge should form a coherent and related whole. In short, everything that is given over to
the memory for its keeping should be linked as closely as possible to material
of the same sort. This is all to say that we should not expect our memory
to retain and reproduce isolated, unrelated facts, but should give166 it the advantage of as many logical
and well grounded associations as possible.回忆。——回忆完全依赖于联想。除非通过一些与缺失项相关联的其他事实、名字或什么，否则我们无法回忆起那些难以捉摸的特定事实或名字。记忆只能通过联想的桥梁到达任何想要的事实。因此，越是在要记住的事实和脑海中已有的相关事实之间建立联想，回忆就越确定。历史日期和事件在学习时应该与重要的中心日期和事件联系起来，它们自然地与之关联。地理名称、地点或其他信息应与脑中已有的相关内容连接。科学知识应形成一个连贯且相关的整体。简而言之，所有交给记忆保存的内容都应尽可能紧密地与同类材料联系起来。这意味着我们不应期望记忆能够保留和再现孤立的、不相关的事实，而应为其提供尽可能多的逻辑和有根据的联想。Recognition.—A fact reproduced by
memory but not recognized as belonging to our past experience would impress us
as a new fact. This would mean that
memory would fail to link the present to the past. Often we are puzzled to
know whether we have before met a certain person, or on a former occasion told
a certain story, or previously experienced a certain present state of mind
which seems half familiar. Such baffling mental states are usually but
instances of partial and incomplete recognition. Recognition no longer applies
to much of our knowledge; for example, we say we remember that four times six
is twenty-four, but probably none of us can recall when and where we learned
this fact—we cannot recognize it as
belonging to our past experience. So with ten thousand other things, which
we know rather than remember in the strict sense.识别。——如果一个事实被记忆再现，但未被识别为属于我们过去的经历，它会给我们留下新的印象。这意味着记忆未能将现在与过去联系起来。常常我们会困惑是否曾经见过某个人，或者在某个场合讲过某个故事，或者以前经历过某种似乎似曾相识的心理状态。这种令人困惑的心理状态通常是部分和不完整识别的例子。识别不再适用于我们的许多知识；例如，我们说我们记得四乘六等于二十四，但可能我们中没有人能回忆起何时何地学到这个事实——我们不能识别它属于我们过去的经历。同样的情况也适用于其他成千上万的事物，这些事物我们是知道而非在严格意义上记住。What are the forms in which memory presents the past to
us? What are the elements with which it deals? What is the stuff of which it
consists?记忆以何种形式向我们呈现过去？它处理的元素是什么？它的构成要素又是什么？Images as the Material of Memory.—In the light of our
discussion upon mental imagery, and with the aid of a little introspection, the
answer is easy. I ask you to remember your home, and at once a visual image of
the familiar house, with its well-known rooms and their characteristic
furnishings, comes to your mind. I ask you to remember the last concert you
attended, or the chorus of birds you heard recently in the woods; and there
comes a flood of images, partly visual, but largely auditory, from the melodies
you heard. Or I ask you167 to remember the feast of which you
partook yesterday, and gustatory and olfactory images are prominent among the
others which appear. And so I might keep on until I had covered the whole range
of your memory; and, whether I ask you for the simple trivial experiences of
your past, for the tragic or crucial experiences, or for the most abstruse and
abstract facts which you know and can recall, the case is the same: much of what memory presents to you comes
in the form of images or of ideas of your
past.记忆的图像作为材料。——在我们关于心理表象的讨论和一些内省的帮助下，答案变得简单明了。请你回忆一下你的家，脑海中立刻会出现那熟悉的房子的视觉形象，包括那些你熟知的房间及其特有的家具。请回忆一下你最近参加的音乐会，或是你在树林中听到的鸟鸣合唱；随之而来的是一系列图像，部分是视觉的，但主要是听觉的，来自你所听到的旋律。或者我让你回忆昨天你享用的盛宴，味觉和嗅觉的图像就会在其它图像中脱颖而出。我可以继续这样问下去，直到涵盖你记忆中的所有范围；无论我问的是过去那些简单琐碎的经历、悲剧或关键的经历，还是你知道并能回忆起来的最深奥和抽象的事实，情况都是一样的：记忆向你呈现的许多内容都是以过去图像或想法的形式出现的。Images Vary as to Type.—We do not all remember
what we call the same fact in like images or ideas. When you remembered that
Columbus discovered America in 1492, some of you had an image of Columbus the
mariner standing on the deck of his ship, as the old picture shows him; and accompanying
this image was an idea of "long agoness." Others, in recalling the
same fact, had an image of the coast on which he landed, and perchance felt the
rocking of the boat and heard it scraping on the sand as it neared the shore.
And still others saw on the printed page the words stating that Columbus
discovered America in 1492. And so in an infinite variety of images or ideas we
may remember what we call the same fact, though of course the fact is not
really the same fact to any two of us, nor to any one of us when it comes to us
on different occasions in different images.图像的类型各不相同。——我们并非所有人都以相同的图像或想法记住所谓的同一事实。当你记得哥伦布在1492年发现美洲时，你们中的一些人脑海中会出现一幅老画中描绘的航海家哥伦布站在他的船甲板上的形象；伴随这个图像的是一种“很久以前”的概念。而另一些人回忆起这一事实时，脑海中出现的是他登陆的海岸，可能还感觉到了船的摇晃和它在接近岸边时在沙子上刮擦的声音。还有一些人则在印刷页面上看到了陈述“哥伦布在1492年发现了美洲”的文字。因此，我们可以用无限多样的图像或想法来记住所谓的同一事实，尽管事实上，对任何两个人或同一个人在不同场合以不同图像呈现的事实来说，事实本身并不是真正的相同。Other Memory Material.—But sensory images are
not the only material with which memory has to deal. We may also recall the
bare fact that it rained a week ago today without having images of the rain. We
may recall that Columbus discovered America in 1492 without visual or other
images of the event. As a matter of fact we do constantly recall many facts of
abstract nature, such as mathematical or scientific formulæ with no168 imagery other than that of the words
or symbols, if indeed these be present. Memory may therefore use as its stuff
not only images, but also a wide range of facts, ideas and meanings of all
sorts.其他记忆材料。——但是感官图像并不是记忆所处理的唯一材料。我们也可以回忆起一周前今天下雨这个事实，而不需要雨的图像。我们可以回忆起哥伦布在1492年发现美洲，而不需要视觉或其他图像。事实上，我们确实不断地回忆许多抽象的事实，比如数学或科学公式，除了文字或符号之外没有其他图像，如果这些符号存在的话。因此，记忆不仅可以使用图像作为其材料，还可以使用各种广泛的事实、概念和意义。4. LAWS UNDERLYING MEMORY
