2025年英语专八真题听力 演讲

Working Memory

工作记忆 (Working Memory)

Good morning, everyone.

大家早上好。

Today, we're going to talk about working memory.

今天，我们要讨论工作记忆。

OK, what is working memory? Working memory is that part of our consciousness that we are aware of at any given time of day.

好，什么是工作记忆？工作记忆是我们意识中在一天中任何特定时刻我们所意识到的那一部分。

In fact, you're doing it right now. It's not something we can turn off.

事实上，你们现在就在使用它。它不是我们能关闭的东西。

If you turn it off, that's called a coma, loss of consciousness, right?

如果你关闭了它，那就叫做昏迷、失去意识，对吧？

Now, What does our working memory contain?

那么，我们的工作记忆包含什么内容呢？

First, it stores some immediate experiences and a little bit of knowledge.

首先，它存储一些即时的体验和少量知识。

Second, 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.

其次，它允许我们回溯到长期记忆中，根据需要提取部分内容，将其混合，并根据我们当前的目标对其进行处理。

Please note the current goal isn't something like, I want to be the CEO in a big company or the top student in the class.

请注意，这里说的“当前目标”不是像“我想成为大公司的CEO”或“成为班上的尖子生”这类宏大的目标。

It's not something like this. It's more common.

不是这类。它更常见、更具体。

For example, I'd like that biscuit, or I need to figure out how to get to the railway station.

例如，“我想要那块饼干”，或者“我需要弄清楚怎么去火车站”。

So in a word, working memory capacity is our ability to take what we know and use it in ways that allow us to satisfy our current goal.

所以，简而言之，工作记忆容量就是我们获取已知信息并运用它来满足当前目标的能力。

Now, let's talk a bit more about working memory capacity.

现在，让我们再谈谈工作记忆容量。

Research in this field has a fairly long history,and it shows that working memory capacity has the following positive effects.

这个领域的研究历史相当长，它表明工作记忆容量具有以下积极影响：

First, people with high working memory capacity tend to be good storytellers.

第一，工作记忆容量高的人往往擅长讲故事。

They tend to solve and do well on standardized tests however important that is.

他们倾向于在标准化考试中表现出色（无论这有多重要）。

They are able to have high levels of writing ability.

他们能够拥有高水平的写作能力。

They're also able to reason at high levels.

他们也能够进行高水平的推理。

Second, working memory is great because it helps us to communicate in such ways.

第二，工作记忆很棒，因为它帮助我们以特定方式进行沟通。

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.

我们可以进行对话，我可以围绕对话构建叙述，这样我就知道我们谈到了哪里、将要谈什么，以及如何为这个对话做出贡献。

Third, it allows us to solve problems and do critical thinking.

第三，它使我们能够解决问题和进行批判性思考。

For example, when we are in the middle of a meeting, we can listen to somebody's presentation evaluate it, decide whether we like it or not, and ask follow-up questions.

例如，当我们在会议中时，我们可以倾听某人的陈述，对其进行评估，决定是否赞同，并提出后续问题。

All of that occurs within working memory.

所有这些都发生在工作记忆中。

Finally, our working memory also functions like this.

最后，我们的工作记忆还这样运作：

Suppose now we are shopping in the store, we often buy milk and eggs and bread, when at the same time, what we are really looking for is vegetable and pork.

假设现在我们在商店购物，我们常常会买牛奶、鸡蛋和面包，而与此同时，我们真正要找的其实是蔬菜和猪肉。

We need to make sure we're getting what we're looking for on those everyday occasions.

我们需要确保在这些日常场合中买到我们真正需要的东西。

Now, a central issue with working memory is that it's limited.

现在，工作记忆的一个核心问题是它是有限的。

This means it's limited in capacity limited in duration, limited in focus.

这意味着它在容量上有限、在持续时间上有限、在专注力上有限。

We tend to remember about four things.

我们倾向于记住大约四样东西。

Suppose 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.

假设我们能在约10到20秒内记住这四样东西——除非我们对它做些什么，除非我们处理它，除非我们将它应用到某个事物上，除非我们和别人谈论它。

The problem that we have is that life now comes at us very quickly, and what we need to do is to take that abundant flow of experience and somehow extract meaning from it with a working memory, which is about the size of a pea.

我们面临的问题是，现在生活信息来得非常快，我们需要做的是利用这丰富的经验流，用那只有豌豆大小的工作记忆，从中提取出某种意义。

But don't get me wrong at this point, working memory is truly awesome.

但请不要误解我的意思,工作记忆确实非常了不起。

Working memory makes us investigate our current experience as we move forward, and it helps us to make sense of the world around us.

工作记忆使我们能够随着进程探究当前的体验，它帮助我们理解周围的世界。

But I repeat, it does have certain limits.

但我重申，它确实有某些限制。

So when we think about working memory, we have to realize that this limited capacity has lots of different impacts on us.

因此，当我们思考工作记忆时，我们必须意识到这种有限的容量对我们有很多不同的影响。

Have you ever walked from one room to another and then forgotten why you're there?

你有没有试过从一个房间走到另一个房间，然后忘了自己为什么去那里？

You do know the solution to that, right? You go back to that original room.

你知道解决办法，对吧？那就是回到原来的房间。

We need to realize that working memory has a limited capacity.

我们需要认识到工作记忆的容量是有限的。

So what I want to do now is to talk a little bit about a couple of strategies here, and these will be really important because you are now in an information era.

所以，我现在想谈谈几个策略，这些策略将非常重要，因为你们现在身处信息时代。

Now the first part of this is that we need to process our existence, our life immediately.

首先，我们需要即时处理我们的存在、我们的生活。

This means that we need to process what's going on the moment it happens, not 10 minutes later, not a week later, but at the moment.

这意味着我们需要在事情发生时即刻处理正在发生的事情，而不是10分钟后，也不是一周后，而是就在那一刻。

So during a meeting or conversation, we need to think about, well, do I agree with him?What's missing?

所以，在会议或谈话中，我们需要思考：嗯，我同意他吗？缺了什么？

What would I like to know now?

我现在想知道什么？

It's a way of processing what's going on so that we can it later.

这是一种处理当下情况的方式，以便我们之后能够回忆（或运用）。

Second, we also need to repeat it, We need to practice.

第二，我们也需要重复它，我们需要练习。

So we need to think about it here.

所以我们需要在这里思考。

In between, we want to talk to people about it.

在这中间，我们要和别人谈论它。

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.

我们要把它写下来，当你回到家时，拿出那些笔记思考，最终通过时间进行练习。

The third thing is, we need to think elaboratively and we need to think illustratively.

第三，我们需要进行精细加工（elaboratively）的思考，并需要借助例证（illustratively）来思考。

Oftentimes, we think that we have to relate new knowledge to prior knowledge.

通常，我们需要将新知识与已有知识联系起来。

How can we do it?

我们该怎么做？

We can take all of our prior knowledge, or existence, and wrap it around that new knowledge and make all of these connections, and then it becomes more meaningful.

我们可以利用我们所有的已有知识或经验，将其围绕新知识组织起来，建立所有这些联系，这样它就变得更有意义。

The fourth important strategy that I use is imagery.

我使用的第四个重要策略是意象（imagery）。

We are built for images.

我们天生适合处理图像。

We need to take advantage of that.

我们需要利用这一点。

Think about things in images, write things down that way.

用图像来思考事物，用那种方式写下东西。

If you read a book, pull things up.

如果你读一本书，把内容提取出来（形成图像）。

For example,I just got through reading A Dream of the Red Chamber, and I have a perfect idea of what Lin Daiyu looks like in my mind, my own version of Lin Daiyu.

例如，我刚读完《红楼梦》，我的脑海中就对林黛玉的形象有了一个完美的构想——我自己版本的林黛玉。

Now, the last strategy.

现在，最后一个策略。

We humans are meaning-making machines.

我们人类是制造意义的机器。

It's what we do.

这就是我们所做的事。

We try to make meaning out of everything that happens to us.

我们试图从发生在我们身上的一切中找出意义。

Here, organization helps.

在这里，组织（organization）会有所帮助。

So we need to structure what we're doing in ways that make sense.

因此，我们需要以有意义的方式来构建我们正在做的事情。

If we are providing knowledge and experience, we need to put it in some kind of order.

如果我们在传授知识和经验，我们需要将其按某种顺序组织。

And we also need support.

我们还需要支持（support）。

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.

支持可能来自向他人提问、给他们一张带有组织结构图的纸，或者提供一些引导性的图像。

So we need to support it.

所以我们需要提供支持。

OK, to recap today's lecture, we've talked about what working memory is, its functions, roles, and limitations, and the strategies to be used to offset the limitations.

好，总结一下今天的讲座：我们讨论了工作记忆是什么、它的功能、作用和局限性，以及用于弥补这些局限性的策略。

In our next lecture, we are going to talk about the functions of our long-term memory. Thank you.

在下一讲中，我们将讨论长期记忆的功能。谢谢。

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