你还在为健忘烦恼吗？这可能是高智商的表现哦！

文章来源：中国日报双语新闻（chinadaily_mobile)

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相信很多人都有这样的体验：

刚走到楼下，突然担心自己是不是忘记锁门了，再气喘吁吁地跑回去。

到了超市，却忘记了要买啥。

看书和考试完全两种状态……

You can relax if remembering everything is not your strong suit. Recent research makes the case that being forgetful can be a strength — in fact, selective memory can even be a sign of stronger intelligence.

如果事事牢记不是你的强项，那么你现在可以长舒一口气了。最近的研究表明健忘也是一种优势。实际上，选择性记忆甚至是高智商的表现呢。

Traditional research on memory has focused on the advantages of remembering everything. But looking through years of recent memory data, researchers Paul Frankland and Blake Richards of the University of Toronto found that forgetting can be just as important to our decision-making as what our minds choose to remember.

关于记忆力的传统研究主要关注点在超强记忆力上。而来自多伦多大学的研究者保罗·弗兰克兰和布莱克·理查兹在浏览了近年的记忆数据后却得出了如下结论：对于我们的决策来说，关于遗忘什么和我们牢牢记住什么一样重要。

"The goal of memory is not the transmission of information through time, per se. Rather, the goal of memory is to optimize decision-making. As such, transience is as important as persistence in mnemonic systems," their study in Neuron states.

 他们发表在《神经元》期刊上的研究论文指出：“记忆的目的不是在一段时间内传递信息，它的目标是帮助我们优化决策。这样来说，瞬间记忆和长期记忆对于我们的记忆系统来说，同样重要。”

mnemonic：[nɪ'mɑnɪk] 记忆的

transience：['trænzɪənsi] 短暂，顷刻

persistence：[pɚ'sɪstəns] 持久，存留

1

It helps us forget outdated information

帮助我们遗忘过时的信息

Making intelligent decisions does not mean you need to have all the information at hand, it just means you need to hold onto the most valuable information. And that means clearing up space in your memory palace for the most up-to-date information on clients and situations. 

想要做出明智的决策并不要求你掌握所有的信息，你只需抓住最有价值的信息就行了。这也就意味着你要为了最新客户信息和情况在记忆宫殿中清理出空间。

Our brains do this by generating new neurons in our hippocampus, which have the power to overwrite existing memories that are influencing our decision-making.

大脑通过产生新的海马体神经元来完成清理，而海马体能够改写影响人们决策的现有记忆。

neuron：['nʊrɑn] 神经元

hippocampus：海马体，海马区

"If you're trying to navigate the world and your brain is constantly bringing up multiple conflicting memories, that makes it harder for you to make an informed decision," Richards told Science Daily.

理查兹向《每日科学》表示：“如果在你试图应对复杂情况的时候，你的大脑不停地记起多种互相矛盾的记忆，那会让你难以做出知情决策。”

If you want to increase the number of new neurons in our brain's learning region, try exercising. Moderate aerobic exercise like jogging, power walking, and swimming have been found to increase the number of neurons making important connections in our brains.

如果你想增加大脑学习区的新神经元数量，可以试试锻炼。研究发现，慢跑、健步走和游泳这类适度有氧锻炼可以增加神经元数量，它们为大脑内部搭建了重要连接。

aerobic：[ɛ'robɪk] 有氧的

2

It helps us see the big picture

帮助我们掌握大局

When we forget the names of certain clients and details about old jobs, our brain is making a choice that these details do not matter. Although too much forgetfulness can be a cause for concern, the occasional lost detail can be a sign of a perfectly healthy memory system. 

如果我们忘记了某些客户的名字或者以前工作的细节，这说明我们的大脑做出了选择，认为这些细节无关紧要。虽然过于健忘的确使人担忧，但是偶尔的健忘可能恰好说明我们的记忆系统非常健康。

The researchers found that our brains facilitate decision-making by stopping us from focusing too much on minor past details. Instead, the brain promotes generalization, helping us remember the most important gist of a conversation.

研究者们发现大脑会阻止我们过分关注以前的细枝末节，以便帮助我们进行决策。大脑通过推动归纳概括来帮我们记住谈话中的要点。

generalization：[,dʒɛnrələ'zeʃən] 概括，普遍化

gist：[dʒɪst] 主旨，要点

"One of the things that distinguishes an environment where you want to remember stuff versus an environment where you want to forget stuff is the question of how consistent the environment is and how likely things are to come back into your life," Richards said.

理查兹说：“区分究竟该记住还是该遗忘的要素之一就是：相关情景的一致程度如何及其在生活中再现的可能性有多大。”

If you're an analyst who meets with a client weekly, your brain will recognize that this is a client whose name and story you need to remember. If this is someone you may never meet again, your brain will weigh that information accordingly.

如果你是分析师，与某位客户每周一见，那么你的大脑会告诉你应该熟记这位客户的名字和经历。如果你可能再也不会见到这位客户了，你的大脑将会对此信息作出相应的处理和权衡。

We can get critiqued for being absent-minded when we forget past events in perfect detail. These findings show us that total recall can be overrated. Our brains are working smarter when they aim to remember the right stories, not every story. 

当我们无法完美地记起过往事情的细节时，别人总是批评我们，说我们心不在焉。这些研究结果表明，能够记起所有事情可能被过誉了。当我们的大脑致力于记住应该记的事而非每一件事的时候，它们才会运转得更加流畅。

 以后再有人说你健忘，你可以理直气壮地怼回去：不好意思，这说明我聪明啊。

编辑：唐晓敏 

实习生：李美萱

文章来源：中国日报双语新闻      已获授权

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