雙語·間隔效應：學得更少，記得更多

Spacing effect: Study less, remember more
間隔效應：學得更少，記得更多

The spacing effect is undoubtedly one the most important discoveries in the science of memory. The general idea of spacing is that to achieve the same performance at a given test, you need substantially less time overall to memorize something if you spread your study into multiple sessions as opposed to if you study everything in a single session. As a demonstration, consider an experiment that the famous psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus performed on himself:
間隔效應無疑是記憶科學中最重要的發(fā)現(xiàn)之一。它的大意是，如果你把學習分散到多個不同時段完成，而不是一口氣學完所有內容，那么合起來你只需要少得多的時間就能記住相關內容，從而在特定的考試中取得同樣的表現(xiàn)。為了說明這一點，讓我們考慮著名心理學家赫爾曼·艾賓浩斯在自己身上進行的一個試驗：

Ebbinghaus studied 2 lists of words on two following days. On the first day, he spent 1 minute studying list A and 7.5 minutes studying list B. On the second day, he had to spend another 20 minutes on list A to memorize it perfectly. However, he needed only 7.5 extra minutes to memorize list B.
艾賓浩斯用兩天學習兩組單詞。第一天，他花了1分鐘學習A組單詞，7.5分鐘學習B組單詞。第二天，他不得不再花20分鐘才能牢固地記住A組單詞，而只需要額外再花7.5分鐘就能記住B組單詞。

By spacing the sessions more equally for list B, Ebbinghaus managed to save himself about ? of total time spent on studying. In a similar way, if it takes you 3 hours in a row to prepare for a test, you may need less than 2 hours in total if you divide the time into 2 or 3 equally-sized sessions spread across several days.
通過更均等地分散安排對單詞的學習，艾賓浩斯設法節(jié)省了1/4的總學習時間。與此類似，如果不停歇地復習考試需要花上3個小時，那么把復習時間均等地分成2-3份，分布在幾天完成，你可能總共只需要不到2小時就能復習完。

In general, the more you spread your sessions, the less overall time you will need. Scientists recommend that the spacing distance should be about 10-20% of the test delay. If your test is in 10 days, you will benefit most from studying once a day. If your test is in 6 months, you should study every 20 days.
一般來說，學習時間越分散，所需的總時間就越短。科學家建議，學習的間隔距離應該是距離考試時間的10%~20%。如果還有10天考試，那么每天學習一次的效果最好。如果考試在6個月之后，你應該每20天復習一遍。

Spacing not only substantially saves time, it also boosts long-term retention. Each study session that is followed by immediate or delayed sleep provides another opportunity to consolidate the studied material (we cover consolidation processes above). Furthermore, spacing can give you more opportunities to associate the study material with more states and contexts (physical, mental, environmental), which makes it easier to retrieve it in the future (see state-dependence and context-dependence).
間隔學習不僅能夠大幅節(jié)省時間，還能夠增強長期記憶。每一個緊接著或稍后進入睡眠的學習時段，都額外提供了一次鞏固學習內容的機會（我們在上文已經(jīng)講過記憶鞏固的過程）。此外，間隔也為你提供了更多機會把學習內容與更多（生理的、心理的、環(huán)境的）狀態(tài)或情境聯(lián)系起來，從而使記憶在未來更容易檢索（參見狀態(tài)依賴和情境依賴的內容）。

Most importantly, spacing effectively reveals to your brain that forgetting is taking place – a crucial signal that is not available in massed practice (= if you study for many hours within a single session). The signal of forgetting has been found to automatically encourage more effective encoding strategies in students.
最重要的是，間隔有效地告訴你的大腦，遺忘正在發(fā)生——這是在集中學習（即一口氣學習好幾個小時）時不會出現(xiàn)的一個重要信號。研究已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)，遺忘信號會自動鼓勵學生使用更有效的編碼策略。

The spacing effect is a robust phenomenon in psychology and is extremely effective for a wide range of study materials (including foreign language vocabulary, math problems, spatial information).
間隔效應是心理學上一種強有力的現(xiàn)象，對于多種學習材料都極為有效（包括學習外語詞匯、數(shù)學問題、空間信息等）。

The key idea behind spaced repetition is that revision of a particular concept should be done right before the concept is about to be forgotten in order to achieve maximum time-efficiency and length of retention. As there is no formula that could calculate this exactly, you need to experiment with yourself. For practical reasons, it is probably best to use a specialized software that uses a spacing algorithm.
間隔重復背后的核心思想在于，為了最高效地利用時間，并實現(xiàn)更長久的記憶，應該在一個概念快要被遺忘之前就進行復習。由于并不存在一個公式可以準確地計算間隔，因此需要自己嘗試。出于實際考慮，最好的辦法可能是借助一個運用了間隔算法的專用軟件。

Although there is currently no comparison of the effectiveness of different spaced-repetition algorithms, popular choices include Anki, Quizlet or Supermemo. We recommend that you experiment with a program that is free on most platforms, explicitly states the algorithm used and allows you to tweak it (our favorite pick is Anki).
盡管目前還沒有人比較不同間隔重復算法的效果，但普遍的選擇有Anki,Quizlet和Supermemo。我們推薦你試用一種在大多數(shù)平臺上免費、明確說明所使用的算法，并允許你自行調整的程序（我們最喜歡的是Anki）。

Bear in mind that the spacing effect does not continue indefinitely. For example, ten 1-minute sessions will likely not be better than one 10-minute session. This is because starting each learning sessions carries some costs with it (you have to start to focus, ‘load’ the material into working memory, etc.). For this reason, complex subjects may require longer study sessions for learning to be effective. For instance, it may be better to have three 1-hour sessions per week for your engineering class than six 30-minute sessions. It all depends on the subject studied.
要牢記的是，間隔效應并不會無限制地有效。例如，十個1分鐘的學習時段很可能就沒有一個10分鐘的學習時段效果好，這是因為每個學習時段開始時都會有一些損耗（必須開始專注，把學習內容“裝載”到工作記憶等等）。因此，復雜科目可能需要更長的時段才能夠實現(xiàn)有效學習。例如，每周花三個一小時學習工程學課程，效果可能就比六個30分鐘更好。這完全取決于所學習的科目。

In summary, we recommend the following:
總結起來，我們推薦以下做法：

·Avoid massed studying (i.e. many hours in one session)
·避免集中學習（即一口氣學好幾個小時）。

·Divide your study sessions into smaller blocks spread out over longer periods of time
·把學習時段劃分成幾小塊，分散到較長的一段時間中進行。

·The distance between study sessions should be about 10-20% of the test delay (e.g. for a test in 10 days, study once a day)
·兩個學習時段之間的間隔應為距離考試時間的10%~20%（例如，準備十天后的考試，可以每天學習一次）。

·Schedule your revision of each concept/topic to about the time that you would forget it (this needs self-experimentation as there is no formula to calculate this precisely)
·規(guī)劃復習安排，在快要遺忘的時候復習每個概念/主題（這需要自己嘗試，因為沒有公式能夠準確地計算）。

·Consider using a flashcards program (Anki, Quizlet, Supermemo)
·考慮使用記憶卡片程序（Anki，Quizlet，Supermemo）。

——節(jié)選自《記憶的科學》