為什么你常?！霸挼阶爝叀本屯?？
談話進(jìn)行到一半，有個(gè)詞你突然想不起來(lái)了。它就在那兒……如果你能想起來(lái)的話……
You move on, and hours later, something jogs your memory and the word comes to you, long after its relevance has passed.
于是你不去管它。幾小時(shí)后，記憶被某種東西觸動(dòng)，你想起了那個(gè)詞，但它早已無(wú)關(guān)緊要了。
So, what happened?
到底發(fā)生了什么事?
You experienced what researchers call a tip-of-the-tongue state, that agonizing moment when you know precisely what you want to say but you fail to produce the word or phrase.
你遭遇了研究人員所說(shuō)的“舌尖狀態(tài)”，在那惱人的一刻，你確切地知道自己想要說(shuō)什么，卻無(wú)法說(shuō)出那個(gè)詞或短語(yǔ)。
Far from being telltale signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, these moments are simply part of the way we communicate, and they’re more or less universal.
這些時(shí)刻絕非患上失智癥或阿爾茨海默病的跡象，而是我們與人交流的過(guò)程的一部分，幾乎人人都遭遇過(guò)。
“You can’t talk to anybody, in any culture, in any language, in any age group, that doesn’t know what you’re talking about” when you describe a tip-of-the-tongue state, said Lise Abrams, a psychology professor at the University of Florida who has studied the phenomenon for 20 years. Researchers have even found occurrences among sign language users. (Those, they call tip-of-the-finger states.)
“不論你身在哪種文化，使用哪種語(yǔ)言，處于哪個(gè)年齡段，”當(dāng)你描述“舌尖狀態(tài)”給別人聽(tīng)時(shí)，他們都知道你在說(shuō)什么，研究該現(xiàn)象已達(dá)20年的佛羅里達(dá)大學(xué)(University of Florida)心理學(xué)教授利斯·艾布拉姆斯(Lise Abrams)說(shuō)。研究人員甚至發(fā)現(xiàn)，手語(yǔ)使用者當(dāng)中也有這種情況。(他們稱(chēng)之為“指尖狀態(tài)”。)
We’re more likely to draw blanks on words we use less frequently — like abacus or palindrome — but there are also categories of words that lead to tip-of-the-tongue states more often.
我們對(duì)使用頻次較低的詞更容易忘記一些——比如abacus(算盤(pán))或palindrome(回文)——不過(guò)也存在更易于引發(fā)“舌尖狀態(tài)”的詞匯類(lèi)別。
Proper names are one of those categories. There’s no definitive theory, but one reason might be that proper names are arbitrary links to the people they represent, so people with the same name don’t possess the same semantic information the way that common nouns do, Abrams said.
專(zhuān)有名詞就是其中之一。艾布拉姆斯說(shuō)，個(gè)中原理尚未明確，不過(guò)一個(gè)原因或許在于：專(zhuān)有名詞指向的是它們所指代的隨便什么人，因此不同的人的同一個(gè)名字，并不像普通名詞那樣承載著同樣的語(yǔ)意信息。
Here’s an experiment: Think of the first and last name of the foul-mouthed chef who has a cooking show on Fox. Now think of the hand-held device with numbered buttons you use to add, subtract, multiply or divide.
來(lái)做個(gè)試驗(yàn)：想一下在Fox電視臺(tái)有個(gè)烹飪節(jié)目的那個(gè)罵罵咧咧的大廚的名和姓。再想想你用來(lái)做加減乘除的那部有著數(shù)字按鈕的設(shè)備。
Which was easier to recall?
更容易想起哪個(gè)?
In all likelihood it was “calculator,” since every calculator you’ve ever seen shares those exact same attributes, giving you more context you can draw from when trying to produce the word. (That chef, by the way, is Gordon Ramsay.)
很有可能是“計(jì)算器”，因?yàn)槟阋?jiàn)過(guò)的每一部計(jì)算器都有同樣的特征，讓你在試圖說(shuō)出這個(gè)詞的時(shí)候得到更多提示。(順便說(shuō)一句，那位大廚叫戈登·拉姆賽[Gordon Ramsay]。)
The bad news is there’s not a whole lot we can do in the moment to jog our memory when this happens. However, using certain words or names more often can make you less likely to draw a blank when you’re trying to produce that word, name or phrase.
壞消息是，遭遇這種情況時(shí)，我們能做的旨在觸動(dòng)記憶的事情并不多。不過(guò)，更頻繁地使用某些單詞或名字，可能會(huì)降低你的大腦在你試圖說(shuō)出那個(gè)詞、名字或短語(yǔ)之際一片空白的概率。
So if you can never seem to remember the name of that guy in administration when you’re talking about him, try saying his name out loud when you can: It just might save you a little embarrassment down the road.
因此，如果你每每談及行政部門(mén)的那個(gè)人，似乎都想不起他叫什么，不妨試著在你想起來(lái)的時(shí)候大聲念出他的名字：這或許可以為你在未來(lái)某個(gè)時(shí)刻免去一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)尷尬。
What’s your trick for remembering names? Let me know at [email protected] or tweet me @timherrera. 你有什么記住名字的妙招?跟我說(shuō)說(shuō)吧，請(qǐng)發(fā)電子郵件至[email protected]，或發(fā)消息給@timherrera。
Have a great week!
—Tim 祝你度過(guò)美好的一周!
