【103年警大研究所】碩士班英文詳解

Most people can remember a phone number for up to thirty seconds. When this short amount of time elapses, however, the numbers are erased from the memory. How did the information get there in the first place? Information that makes its way to the short term memory (STM) does so via the sensory storage area. The brain has a filter which only allows stimuli that is of immediate interest to pass on to the STM, also known as the working memory.

     There is much debate about the capacity and duration of the short term memory. The most accepted theory comes from George A. Miller, a cognitive psychologist who suggested that humans can remember approximately seven chunks of information. A chunk is defined as a meaningful unit of information, such as a word or name rather than just a letter or number. Modern theorists suggest that one can increase the capacity of the short term memory by chunking, or classifying similar information together. By organizing information, one can optimize the STM, and improve the chances of a memory being passed on to long term storage.

      When making a conscious effort to memorize something, such as information for an exam, many people engage in “rote rehearsal”. By repeating something over and over again, one is able to keep a memory alive. Unfortunately, this type of memory maintenance only succeeds if there are no interruptions. As soon as a person stops rehearsing the information, it has the tendency to disappear. When a pen and paper are not handy, people often attempt to remember a phone number by repeating it aloud. If the doorbell rings or the dog barks to come in before a person has the opportunity to make a phone call, he will likely forget the number instantly. Therefore, rote rehearsal is not an efficient way to pass information from the short term to long term memory. A better way is to practice “elaborate rehearsal”. This involves assigning semantic meaning to a piece of information so that it can be filed along with other pre-existing long term memories.

Encoding information semantically also makes it more retrievable. Retrieving information can be done by recognition or recall. Humans can easily recall memories that are stored in the long term memory and used often; however, if a memory seems to be forgotten, it may eventually be retrieved by prompting. The more cues a person is given (such as pictures), the more likely a memory can be retrieved. This is why multiple choice tests are often used for subjects that require a lot of memorization.

      大多數人可記得電話號碼的時間長達30秒，然而這一小段時間流逝的時候，記憶中的號碼也會被消除，那麽這個資訊如何第一時間到達我們的頭腦呢？原來資訊會經由感官儲存區域來到短期記憶，大腦有個過濾器，只允許將有興趣的刺激立即傳到短期儲存記憶，這也叫做工作記憶。

      科學家對於短期記憶的容量和持續時間還在進行大量辯論，其中一位名為喬治.阿米蒂奇.米勒的認知心理學家，他提出的學說最能被眾人接受。他提出說：人們大約可以記得有意義的7個資訊塊，資訊塊指的是有意義的資訊，通常指的是文字或名字，而不是字母或號碼。現代理論學家指出：人們可將短期記憶切成一塊塊，或者將那些相似的資訊一同進行分類，資訊這麽經過一番整理過後，任何人就可讓短期記憶達到優化效果，而且記憶傳遞到長期儲存區域的機會也會增加。

      許多人有意識地要記誦事物的時候，就會忙於“死記硬背”，像是為了考試而記東西，如果他們反反複複記誦事物的話，就可以讓記憶活躍起來。不幸的是：只有在沒有干擾因素的情況下，這種記憶的維持方式才能成功。一旦人停止記誦這類資訊的話，那麽這類資訊往往容易消失掉。如果大家手邊沒有紙筆的話，那麽他們常常會試著將電話號碼大聲念出來，不斷重複著。如果你有機會打電話之前，不巧門鈴響了或者有狗在吠叫的話，那麽他很有可能會立即忘掉號碼，因此要將短期記憶的資訊傳遞至長期記憶的話，死記硬背並非有效率的方式。這邊有個較好的方式，那就是“精心記誦”。通常需要將語意上的意涵分配至一條資訊，如此一來這種資訊才能夠和早已存在的長期記憶歸檔在一起。

     在語意方面，編碼資訊也能讓it（它）變得更容易汲取，我們可藉著辨識和回想等方法將資訊取出來。如果資訊儲存在長期記憶中，而且能夠經常用到的話，那麽人們就能容易將記憶回想起來。然而，如果記憶似乎容易被遺忘的話，最後必須藉著提示的方式，資訊才能夠被汲取出來。一個人獲得的暗示越多（像是圖片）的話，那麽汲取記憶的可能性越大。難怪考生遇到伴隨複選題的科目的時候，他們往往需要大量記憶。