異類之不一樣的成功啟示錄 第156期:記憶與語(yǔ)言的關(guān)系

Take the following list of numbers: 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 7, 6. Spend 20 seconds memorizing that sequence before saying them out loud again.

看看下面的數(shù)字：4、8、5、3、9、7、6，將它們大聲讀出來(lái)，然后背過(guò)臉去，用20秒來(lái)仔細(xì)回憶，然后再按正確的順序大聲讀出來(lái)。

If you speak English, you have about a 50 percent chance of remembering that sequence perfectly.

如果英語(yǔ)是你的母語(yǔ)，那么復(fù)述正確的機(jī)率將是50%。

If you're Chinese, though, you're almost certain to get it right every time. What is that?

如果你是中國(guó)人，那么正確率幾乎可以達(dá)到100%。為什么會(huì)這樣？

Because as human beings, we store digits in a memory loop that runs for about two seconds.

因?yàn)槿祟惔鎯?chǔ)數(shù)字的記憶循環(huán)（memory loop）是2秒鐘，

We most easily memorize whatever we can say or read within that two-second span.

我們可以很容易地記住我們?cè)?秒鐘內(nèi)所說(shuō)的話或所讀到的內(nèi)容。

And Chinese speakers get that list of numbers—4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 7, 6—right every time,

當(dāng)中國(guó)人在讀“4、8、5、3、9、7、6”這一串?dāng)?shù)字時(shí)，每次剛好都是2秒鐘。

because unlike English speakers, their language allows them to fit all those seven numbers into two seconds.

與英語(yǔ)不同，漢語(yǔ)中7個(gè)數(shù)字的發(fā)音只需要2秒鐘的時(shí)間。

That example comes from Stanislas Dehaene's book The Number Sense.

這個(gè)例子選自斯塔尼斯拉斯·德阿納（Stanislas Dehaene）的《數(shù)感》（The Number Sense）一書，

An as Dehaene explains: Chinese number words are remarkably brief.

在書中，德阿納解釋道：中國(guó)的數(shù)字非常簡(jiǎn)易。

Most of them can be uttered in less than one quarter second. For instance, four is "si" and seven "qi".

大多數(shù)數(shù)字的發(fā)音只有四分之一秒（舉個(gè)例子來(lái)說(shuō)，“4”的讀音是“si”，而“7”的讀音是“qi”），

Their English equivalence, four, seven, are longer: pronouncing them takes about one third of a second.

他們相當(dāng)于英語(yǔ)中的“four”和“seven”，seven聽(tīng)起來(lái)似乎還要長(zhǎng)，這些數(shù)字的發(fā)音需要三分之一秒。

The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently is entirely due to this difference in length.

英語(yǔ)和漢語(yǔ)語(yǔ)言長(zhǎng)度上的差異，造成了英語(yǔ)和漢語(yǔ)在記憶上的時(shí)間差距。

In languages as perse as Welsh, Arabic, Chinese, English and Hebrew,

語(yǔ)言被區(qū)分成很多種，如威爾士語(yǔ)、阿拉伯語(yǔ)、漢語(yǔ)、英語(yǔ)和希伯來(lái)語(yǔ)。

there is a reproducible corelation between the time required to pronounce numbers in a given language and the memory span of its speakers.

講話者的記憶能力通常同他輸出數(shù)字時(shí)所需時(shí)間長(zhǎng)短有因果關(guān)聯(lián)。

In this domain, the prize for efficacy goes to the Cantonese dialect of Chinese, whose brevity grants residents of Hong Kong a rocketing memory span of about ten digits.

在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域里，最佳記憶力的獎(jiǎng)項(xiàng)要頒發(fā)給講粵語(yǔ)的中國(guó)人。語(yǔ)言上的優(yōu)勢(shì)使得香港人獲得了超群的記憶能力，他們甚至可以用1秒鐘記住10個(gè)數(shù)字。

It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed.

這也同樣表明，在數(shù)字符號(hào)體系方面，西方國(guó)家和亞洲國(guó)家有很大的差別。

In English, we say 14, 16, 17, 18, and 19.

在英語(yǔ)中，我們把“14、16、17、18、19”稱做“fourteen、sixteen、seventeen、eighteen、nineteen”。