童年最初的那些记忆都在哪里呢?
Most people will agree they cannot remember much, if anything, prior to around age four. What is remembered often comes in “spot” images, floating around in an otherwise gray area of uncertainty. Yet when we look at a two or three year-old, perception and basic cognition appear to be in place and to have been functioning for a good long while. Why are those years lost to us? One possibility is that memory in humans requires a narrative context. “Narrative context” means that it isn’t enough to provide, say, a random visual image to the brain in order for it to form a working memory: the image needs to be put in place alongside a number of other images, with which it helps to establish a pattern. The very first time you see a tree, your brain can’t do anything with it yet — the information may simply be stored until it can be connected to other things, such as the back yard where you saw it, its size and color, or events of significance that occurred at the same time. Once enough relationships are in place, it then becomes possible to remember — not just “tree” as an abstraction, but “the big green tree I saw when I was walking this morning behind the house.” Learning words probably aids in this process, but is not strictly necessary. Still, the brain may provide context for memories by telling itself miniature stories, complete with setting, characters, and relationships. According to this idea, early childhood events occur at a time before we have developed enough narrative skills to tell the stories necessary for the formation of memories. No narrative context, no long-term memory–end of story.
大多数人会同意他们无法记得很多,如果有什么区别的话,前4岁左右。什么是记得常常受到“随时”形象,到处漂浮于其他灰色区域的不确定性因素。然而,当我们看两个或三个岁感知和基本认识,似乎是在一个地方,并且已经运作好一阵子了。为何那些年输给了我们? 一种可能性是人类的记忆需要一个叙事语境中。“叙事语境”意味着它并不足以提供,也就是说,一个随机的视觉形象到大脑,以便它形成一个工作记忆:图像需要放在适当的位置和很多其它的图像,它有助于建立一个模式。你的第一次看到一棵树的时候,你的大脑能不做任何处理的信息呢——可能是简单的存储,直到它能被连接到其它的一些事情,比如在后院看见它,它的大小和颜色,或者事件的意义,所以发生在同一时间。一旦足够的关系是到位时,它就变成了可能记住——不仅仅是“树”作为一种抽象概念,而是“大青翠树我走路的时候我看到今天早上在他的房子后面。” 学习单词可能艾滋病在这个过程中,但是没有严格的必要。尽管如此,大脑记忆可以提供上下文的故事告诉自己,完成与背景的缩影,人物,和人际关系。根据这一理念,童年早期的事件都发生在一个时间,我们才能有发展足够的叙述技巧告诉故事的形成所必需的回忆。没有叙述背景,没有长期的记忆结束的故事, ——译文来自: sunnybath