如何訓練自己的大腦更好學習?

I'm excited to be starting my “new school year” as a blogger here on Healthland — and what better way to begin than with news about boosting your ability to learn, using neuroscience! One of the hottest articles flying around the Web today is Benedict Carey's great New York Times science story headlined "Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits."
很高興可以在Healthland作爲一個博客使用者開始我的“新學期”——比提高學習能力的說法更有效的學習方法是使用神經系統科學。如今網絡上流傳的最熱門文章是Benedict Carey在《紐約時報》上發表的題爲《忘記你所知道的好的學習習慣》。

In it, Carey shows, among other things, why the conventional wisdom about learning — getting into the habit of studying in the same place each time — is wrong. How come? Essentially, making studying monotonous contradicts key aspects of what we know about learning. Novelty is a key part of the connections that ease learning. Studies find that simply switching study rooms helps make new associations and keep them fresh. Carey writes:
除了其他方面，Carey還在文章裏表明，爲什麼關於學習的傳統觀點——養成每次都在同一地方學習的習慣——是錯的。爲什麼？單調枯燥的學習跟我們所瞭解的學習主要觀點相違背。新奇是使學習變得簡單的主要部分。研究發現僅僅需要轉換書房幫助建立新的聯繫，使他們保持新鮮感。Carey寫道：

The brain makes subtle associations between what it is studying and the background sensations it has at the time, the authors say, regardless of whether those perceptions are conscious. It colors the terms of the Versailles Treaty with the wasted fluorescent glow of the dorm study room, say; or the elements of the Marshall Plan with the jade-curtain shade of the willow tree in the backyard. Forcing the brain to make multiple associations with the same material may, in effect, give that information more neural scaffolding.
大腦在學到什麼和在那時產生的背景感覺形成了微妙的聯繫，作者說，不管那些感知是否有意識的。例如，它用舊的日光燈照亮宿舍自修室來渲染《凡爾賽和約》的氛圍；或用後院中柳樹綠玉色窗簾般影子渲染《馬沙條約》的內容。強迫大腦對同一種物質做出多種聯繫，實際上，會提供那個信息更多神經支架。

“What we think is happening here is that, when the outside context is varied, the information is enriched, and this slows down forgetting,” said Dr. Bjork, the senior author of the two-room experiment.

“我們所認爲的是，當外部條件改變了，信息就更加豐富，這就放慢忘記的速度。”兩個房間實驗的高級作者Bjork博士說。

(恆星英語學習網原創編譯,轉載請註明出處!)Throughout the NYT piece, Carey illustrates that, in education as in medicine, we have a big problem moving from research evidence into practice.
《美國紐約時報》的整篇報道中，Carey說明，教育跟醫學一樣，從研究到實踐我們還面臨着大問題。

Incidentally, here's another study tip based on research evidence about how the brain learns by association. Learning is, to a large extent, "state dependent." What that means is that if you study something while anxious, happy or while experiencing some form of altered consciousness, you will remember it better if you are in that same state again when you are tested for what you've learned.
順便，這是另一個有研究證據的關於大腦如何通過聯繫進行學習的提示。學習很大程度上是“情境依靠”的。那意味着當你焦慮，開心或經歷一些意識改變形式的時候進行學習，當你再處於那種狀態對你所學的進行測試時，你會更好地記住。

While I definitely recommend against studying while intoxicated and certainly don't condone test-taking while under the influence, oddly enough, this research does suggest that recall may be improved by trying to match your studying and test-taking emotional states. This may account for part of why last-minute cramming sometimes helps — you are anxious both while studying and while taking the test.
我明確反對喝醉的時候學習，當然也不原諒在酒醉的情況下參加考試，說來也奇怪，研究表明，可以通過將學習和考試情緒狀態相一致提高記憶。這可以部分解釋爲什麼緊急關頭的死記硬背有時有用——你在學習和考試時都很緊張。

Research also finds that while mild to moderate stress increases learning, severe stress can impair memory. Extreme stress can actually cause the higher regions of the brain to shut down, shunting mental energy into areas devoted to aiding the fight-or-flight instinct. So, absolute panic will worsen performance even if you are panicked both while studying and during the test.
研究也發現即使細微到中度的壓力能提高學習，但過重的壓力就損害記憶了。 極端的壓力實際上會導致大腦高級區域停止運作，使精神能量分流到專注於幫助逃跑或戰鬥的本能的區域。所以，完全恐慌會使表現更差，即使你學習和考試時很恐慌。

Stimulants as mild as caffeine can produce state-dependent learning boosts — so if you drink coffee or soda while studying, drink them before the test, too.
像咖啡因這類溫和的興奮劑可以產生情境依靠提高學習——所以如果你學習時喝咖啡或碳酸水，那麼考試時也要喝。

For people who use medication for ADHD, testing and studying should either both be done medicated or unmedicated to maximize state-dependence effects.
對於那些服用治療ADHD藥物的人，考試和學習的時候要不就都服用藥，要不就都不要服用，使情境依靠發揮最大效果。

(恆星英語學習網原創編譯,轉載請註明出處!)