来源: https://www.ted.com/talks/peter_doolittle_how_your_working_memory_makes_sense_of_the_world/transcript?language=en#t-546619
0:11 So yesterday, I was out in the street in front of this building, and I was walking down the sidewalk, and I had company, several of us, and we were all abiding by the rules of walking down sidewalks. We're not talking each other. We're facing forward. We're moving. When the person in front of me slows down. And so I'm watching him, and he slows down, and finally he stops. Well, that wasn't fast enough for me, so I put on my turn signal, and I walked around him, and as I walked, I looked to see what he was doing, and he was doing this. He was texting, and he couldn't text and walk at the same time. Now we could approach this from a working memory perspective or from a multitasking perspective. We're going to do working memory today.
0:11所以昨天，我出现在这栋楼前的街道上，我走在人行道上，我和我们几个人在一起，我们都遵守沿着人行道走的规则。 我们不是在互相交谈。 我们面向前进。 我们正在前进。 当我面前的人减速时。 所以我在看着他，他慢下来，最后他停了下来。 好吧，这对我来说还不够快，所以我转过身来，我走在他身边，当我走路的时候，我看着他在做什么，而他正在这样做。 他正在发短信，他不能同时发短信和走路。 现在我们可以从工作内存角度或从多任务角度来看待这个问题。 我们今天要做工作记忆。
0:59 Now, working memory is that part of our consciousness that we are aware of at any given time of day.You're going it right now. It's not something we can turn off. If you turn it off, that's called a coma, okay?So right now, you're doing just fine.
0:59现在，工作记忆是我们在任何特定时刻都能意识到的意识的一部分。你现在就去做。 这不是我们可以关闭的东西。 如果你把它关掉，这叫做昏迷，好吗？所以现在，你做得很好。
1:16 Now working memory has four basic components. It allows us to store some immediate experiences and a little bit of knowledge. It allows us to reach back into our long-term memory and pull some of that in as we need it, mixes it, processes it in light of whatever our current goal is. Now the current goal isn't something like, I want to be president or the best surfer in the world. It's more mundane. I'd like that cookie, or I need to figure out how to get into my hotel room. Now working memory capacity is our ability to leverage that, our ability to take what we know and what we can hang onto and leverage it in ways that allow us to satisfy our current goal.
1:16现在工作记忆有四个基本组成部分。 它允许我们存储一些即时体验和一点点知识。 它允许我们回到我们的长期记忆中，并根据我们的需要拉出一些内容，混合它，根据我们当前的目标来处理它。 现在目前的目标不是，我想成为世界上最好的冲浪选手。 它更平凡。 我想要那个饼干，或者我需要弄清楚如何进入我的酒店房间。 现在，工作记忆容量是我们利用它的能力，我们能够利用我们所知道的和我们可以利用的东西，并以允许我们满足当前目标的方式利用它。
1:56 Now working memory capacity has a fairly long history, and it's associated with a lot of positive effects.People with high working memory capacity tend to be good storytellers. They tend to solve and do well on standardized tests, however important that is. They're able to have high levels of writing ability.They're also able to reason at high levels.
1:56现在工作记忆容量有相当长的历史，并且它与许多积极的影响有关。具有高工作记忆容量的人往往是好的故事讲述者。 他们倾向于在标准化测试中解决并做得很好，无论多么重要。 他们能够具备高水平的写作能力。他们也能够在高水平上进行推理。
2:19 So what we're going to do here is play a little bit with some of that. So I'm going to ask you to perform a couple tasks, and we're going to take your working memory out for a ride. You up for that? Okay.
2:19所以我们在这里要做的就是玩一些。 所以我会要求你执行一些任务，我们将把你的工作记忆带出去。 那你呢？ 好的。
2:31 I'm going to give you five words, and I just want you to hang on to them. Don't write them down. Just hang on to them. Five words. While you're hanging on to them, I'm going to ask you to answer three questions. I want to see what happens with those words. So here's the words: tree, highway, mirror,Saturn and electrode. So far so good? Okay. What I want you to do is I want you to tell me what the answer is to 23 times eight. Just shout it out. (Mumbling) (Laughter) In fact it's -- (Mumbling) -- exactly. (Laughter) All right. I want you to take out your left hand and I want you to go, "One, two, three, four, five,six, seven, eight, nine, 10." It's a neurological test, just in case you were wondering. All right, now what I want you to do is to recite the last five letters of the English alphabet backwards. You should have started with Z. (Laughter)
2:31我要给你五个字，我只想让你坚持下去。 不要写下来。 只要坚持下去。 五个字。 当你挂在他们身上时，我会请你回答三个问题。 我想看看这些话会发生什么。 所以这就是：树，公路，镜子，土星和电极。 到现在为止还挺好？ 好的。 我想要你做的是我想让你告诉我答案是什么，到了八倍。 只是喊出来。 （咕噜咕噜）（笑声）事实上它是 - （咕噜咕噜） - 确切地说。 （笑声）好的。 我想让你拿出你的左手，我要你去，“一，二，三，四，五，六，七，八，九，十。” 这是一个神经学测试，以防你想知道。 好吧，现在我要你做的是向后背诵英文字母的最后五个字母。 你应该从Z开始。（笑声）
3:42 All right. How many people here are still pretty sure you've got all five words? Okay. Typically we end up with about less than half, right, which is normal. There will be a range. Some people can hang on to five.Some people can hang on to 10. Some will be down to two or three.
3:42好的。 这里有多少人仍然非常确定你有五个字？ 好的。 通常我们最终只有不到一半，对，这是正常的。 会有一个范围。 有些人可以坚持到五人。有些人可以坚持到10人。有些人可能会有两到三人。
3:57 What we know is this is really important to the way we function, right? And it's going to be really important here at TED because you're going to be exposed to so many different ideas.
3:57我们知道这对我们的运作方式非常重要，对吧？ 这在TED非常重要，因为你会接触到许多不同的想法。
4:06 Now the problem that we have is that life comes at us, and it comes at us very quickly, and what we need to do is to take that amorphous flow of experience and somehow extract meaning from it with a working memory that's about the size of a pea. Now don't get me wrong, working memory is awesome. Working memory allows us to investigate our current experience as we move forward. It allows us to make sense of the world around us. But it does have certain limits.
4:06现在我们遇到的问题是，生命来自我们，它很快就会出现在我们面前，而我们需要做的是采取那种无定形的经验流，并以某种方式从中提取意义 豌豆的大小。 现在不要误会我的意思，工作记忆很棒。 工作记忆使我们能够在前进的过程中调查我们当前的经验。 它使我们能够理解我们周围的世界。 但它确实有一定的限制。
4:36 Now working memory is great for allowing us to communicate. We can have a conversation, and I can build a narrative around that so I know where we've been and where we're going and how to contribute to this conversation. It allows us to problem-solve, critical think. We can be in the middle of a meeting,listen to somebody's presentation, evaluate it, decide whether or not we like it, ask follow-up questions.All of that occurs within working memory. It also allows us to go to the store and allows us to get milk and eggs and cheese when what we're really looking for is Red Bull and bacon. (Laughter) Gotta make sure we're getting what we're looking for. Now, a central issue with working memory is that it's limited.It's limited in capacity, limited in duration, limited in focus. We tend to remember about four things.Okay? It used to be seven, but with functional MRIs, apparently it's four, and we were overachieving.Now we can remember those four things for about 10 to 20 seconds unless we do something with it,unless we process it, unless we apply it to something, unless we talk to somebody about it.
4:36现在工作记忆非常适合我们进行交流。我们可以进行对话，我可以围绕这个进行叙述，这样我就知道我们去过哪里，去哪里以及如何为这次对话做出贡献。它允许我们解决问题，批判性思考。我们可以在会议中，倾听某人的演讲，评估它，决定我们是否喜欢它，提出后续问题。所有这些都发生在工作记忆中。它还允许我们去商店，让我们得到牛奶，鸡蛋和奶酪，当我们真正寻找的是红牛和培根。 （笑声）要确保我们得到了我们正在寻找的东西。现在，工作记忆的一个核心问题是它是有限的。它的容量有限，持续时间有限，焦点有限。我们往往记得四件事。好吗？它曾经是七，但有功能性核磁共振成像，显然它是四，我们是超级完美的。现在我们可以记住这四件事大约10到20秒，除非我们用它做什么，除非我们处理它，除非我们应用它什么，除非我们和别人谈论它。
5:43 When we think about working memory, we have to realize that this limited capacity has lots of different impacts on us. Have you ever walked from one room to another and then forgotten why you're there?You do know the solution to that, right? You go back to that original room. (Laughter) Have you ever forgotten your keys? You ever forgotten your car? You ever forgotten your kids? Have you ever been involved in a conversation, and you realize that the conversation to your left is actually more interesting? (Laughter) So you're nodding and you're smiling, but you're really paying attention to this one over here,until you hear that last word go up, and you realize, you've been asked a question. (Laughter) And you're really hoping the answer is no, because that's what you're about to say. All of that talks about working memory, what we can do and what we can't do. We need to realize that working memory has a limited capacity, and that working memory capacity itself is how we negotiate that. We negotiate that through strategies.
5:43当我们考虑工作记忆时，我们必须意识到这种有限的能力对我们有很多不同的影响。你有没有从一个房间走到另一个房间然后忘记你为什么在那里？你确实知道解决方案，对吧？你回到原来的房间。 （笑声）你有没有忘记你的钥匙？你曾经忘记过你的车吗？你曾经忘记过你的孩子吗？您是否参与过对话，并且您意识到左侧的对话实际上更有趣？ （笑声）所以你点头，你正在微笑，但你真的在这里注意这个，直到你听到最后一句话，你意识到，你被问到了一个问题。 （笑声）你真的希望答案是否定的，因为那就是你要说的。所有这些都谈到了工作记忆，我们能做什么以及我们做不到的事情。我们需要意识到工作内存的容量有限，而工作内存容量本身就是我们协商的方式。我们通过战略进行谈判。
6:48 So what I want to do is talk a little bit about a couple of strategies here, and these will be really importantbecause you are now in an information target-rich environment for the next several days. Now the first part of this that we need to think about and we need to process our existence, our life, immediately and repeatedly. We need to process what's going on the moment it happens, not 10 minutes later, not a week later, at the moment. So we need to think about, well, do I agree with him? What's missing? What would I like to know? Do I agree with the assumptions? How can I apply this in my life? It's a way of processing what's going on so that we can use it later. Now we also need to repeat it. We need to practice. So we need to think about it here. In between, we want to talk to people about it. We're going to write it down, and when you get home, pull out those notes and think about them and end up practicing over time. Practice for some reason became a very negative thing. It's very positive.
6:48所以我想要做的就是在这里谈谈一些策略，这些将非常重要，因为你现在正处于信息目标丰富的环境中，接下来的几天。现在我们需要考虑的第一部分，我们需要立即和反复地处理我们的生活，我们的生活。我们需要处理发生的事情，而不是10分钟后，而不是一周之后，此刻。所以我们需要考虑，嗯，我同意他的意见吗？少了什么东西？我想知道什么？我是否同意这些假设？我怎样才能在生活中应用这个？这是一种处理正在发生的事情的方式，以便我们以后可以使用它。现在我们还需要重复它。我们需要练习。所以我们需要在这里考虑一下。在这两者之间，我们想与人们谈论它。我们要把它写下来，当你回到家时，拿出那些笔记并考虑它们并最终练习。由于某种原因的练习变得非常消极。这是非常积极的。
7:46 The next thing is, we need to think elaboratively and we need to think illustratively. Oftentimes, we think that we have to relate new knowledge to prior knowledge. What we want to do is spin that around. We want to take all of our existence and wrap it around that new knowledge and make all of these connections and it becomes more meaningful. We also want to use imagery. We are built for images. We need to take advantage of that. Think about things in images, write things down that way. If you read a book, pull things up. I just got through reading "The Great Gatsby," and I have a perfect idea of what he looks like in my head, so my own version.
7:46接下来的事情是，我们需要精心思考，我们需要说明性地思考。 通常，我们认为我们必须将新知识与先前知识联系起来。 我们想要做的就是旋转它。 我们希望将我们所有的存在都包含在新的知识中，并使所有这些连接变得更有意义。 我们也想使用图像。 我们是为图像而构建的。 我们需要利用这一点。 想想图像中的东西，以这种方式写下来。 如果你读了一本书，就拉起来吧。 我刚刚读完了“了不起的盖茨比”，我对他脑袋中的样子有了完美的了解，所以我自己的版本。
8:23 The last one is organization and support. We are meaning-making machines. It's what we do. We try to make meaning out of everything that happens to us. Organization helps, so we need to structure what we're doing in ways that make sense. If we are providing knowledge and experience, we need to structure that.
8:23最后一个是组织和支持。 我们是意义制造机器。 这就是我们的工作。 我们试图从发生在我们身上的一切事物中获得意义。 组织有所帮助，因此我们需要以有意义的方式构建我们正在做的事情。 如果我们提供知识和经验，我们需要构建它。
8:39 And the last one is support. We all started as novices. Everything we do is an approximation of sophistication. We should expect it to change over time. We have to support that. The support may come in asking people questions, giving them a sheet of paper that has an organizational chart on it or has some guiding images, but we need to support it.
8:39最后一个是支持。 我们都是新手。 我们所做的一切都是近似的复杂性。 我们应该期望它会随着时间而改变。 我们必须支持这一点。 支持者可能会问问人们问题，给他们一张纸上面有组织结构图或者有一些指导性图像，但我们需要支持它。
8:59 Now, the final piece of this, the take-home message from a working memory capacity standpoint is this:what we process, we learn. If we're not processing life, we're not living it. Live life. Thank you.
8:59现在，最后一部分，从工作记忆容量角度来看，带回家的信息就是：我们处理的是什么，我们学到了什么。 如果我们不处理生活，我们就不会生活。 生活。 谢谢。