大腦經常短路?你需要進行記憶大掃除

　If you struggle to remember names and numbers or frequently fail to follow the plot of a film, help could be at hand.

　　如果你總是想不起別人的名字，總忘記數字，或者常常跟不上電影劇情，那就來看看科學家的建議吧。

　　Scientists say memory lapses can be blamed on too much irrelevant information

　　大腦經常短路？你需要進行記憶大掃除

　　If you struggle to remember names and numbers or frequently fail to follow the plot of a film, help could be at hand.

　　如果你總是想不起別人的名字，總忘記數字，或者常常跟不上電影劇情，那就來看看科學家的建議吧。

　　Scientists say the problem is that you know too much – and you need to declutter, or spring-cleanyour mind.

　　科學家表示，出現這一情況是因為“你知道的太多了”，需要清理一下思維，或者來個“大掃除”。

　　Experiments show that the memory lapsesthat come with age are not simply due to brain slowing down.

　　試驗顯示，隨著年齡增長而出現的記憶衰退并不僅僅是因為大腦思維減慢。

　　Instead, they can be blamed on the well-used brain finding it more and more difficult to stop irrelevant information interfering with the task in hand.

　　相反，這可能是因為運轉良好的大腦發現防止無用信息干擾手頭工作越來越困難了。

　　The first step in the study was to compare the working memory of the young and old. Working memory involves holding information in mind while manipulating it mentally.

　　研究首先對比了年輕人和老年人的工作記憶，包括在思考時將信息牢記于心。

　　In the context of the study, it involved giving the volunteers groups of sentences and asking them to work out whether each line made sense – and to remember the last word of each sentence.

　　研究人員在實驗中給了受試者一組句子，要求他們指出每行句子是否有意義，并記住每句的最后一個單詞。

　　Overall, the younger people, who had an average age of 23, did better, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology reports.

　　《實驗心理學季刊》報告稱，總體來看，平均年齡為23歲的年輕人表現更好。

　　The Canadian researchers then did a second experiment to see what was hindering the older volunteers, who had an average age of 67.

　　加拿大的研究人員隨后進行了另一項實驗，以找出妨礙老年受試者記憶的因素。老年受試者平均年齡為67歲。

　　This involved being shown a picture of eight animals and being asked to memorise the order in which the creatures appeared.

　　其中一項實驗是給受試者一張畫有八只動物的圖片，讓他們記住動物的順序。

　　The volunteers were then shown dozens of the pictures and asked to click on their computer mouse when the first animal in their memorised sequence occurred, then the second and so on.

　　受試者隨后會看到幾十張圖片，并按記憶中動物的順序點擊鼠標。

　　The older adults found it more difficult to progress, suggesting the previous picture was stuck in their mind.

　　老年受試者更難完成實任務，這表明之前的圖片給他們留下的印象太深刻了。

　　Mervin Blair, of Montreal’s Concordia University, said: ‘We found that the older adults had more difficulty in getting rid of previous information.’

　　加拿大蒙特利爾的康科迪亞大學的默文 布萊爾說：“我們發現老年人更難擺脫掉原有信息的影響。”

　　Previous research has found that the part of the brain that keeps embarrassing thoughts in checkalso weakens with age, leading to people losing some of their inhibitions.

　　之前的研究發現，可阻擋尷尬想法的大腦部分也會隨著年齡的增長而退化，導致人們有時無法自控。

　　In other words, outspokenold people aren't being rude - they just can't hold their tongues.

　　換句話說，講話直白的老年人并不是無禮，他們只是管不住自己的嘴。