瞬间健忘症 是哪里出了错?

We've all walked into a room only to find that the reason for doing so has suddenly and entirely vanished from our mind.

有没有这样的经历：我们进屋想要干点什么，结果却发现完全忘记自己进屋的目的了，脑子里什么都不记得了。

Psychologists have discovered the so-called ‘senior moments’ that can leave us utterly bemused and retracing our steps may actually be caused by the way the brain processes information as the body leaves one room and enters another.

心理学家最近发现，当我们离开房间并进入另一个房间时，这种“老年性的瞬间记忆丧失”会让我们完全茫然失措，我们得回想一下自己的步骤。这些其实跟我们大脑处理信息的方式有关。

It appears the mind regards a doorway as something experts call an ‘event boundary’, signalling the end of one memory episode and the beginning of another.

我们大脑似乎会将门视为所谓的“事件边界”（专家术语），标志着一个记忆场景的结束和另一个新记忆场景的开始。

Psychologists found the brain tends to file away events and memories from one room as soon as it exits into another, storing information in successive chapters or episodes.

心理学家发现，一旦我们离开所在房间进入另一个，我们的大脑就会将我们在一个房间内的事件和记忆归档，信息会以连续章节或场景的形式存储在我们脑中。

The latest research, published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, shows doorways act as a kind of trigger for the brain to file one chapter and move on to the next one.

发布在《实验心理学季刊》上的最新研究显示，门会刺激大脑将一章节的信息进行归档然后进入到下一章节中。

A U.S. team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana came up with the findings after an experiment where volunteers used computer keys to navigate their way through 55 ‘virtual’ rooms, large and small.

来自美国印第安纳州圣母大学的研究团队在实验研究后提出这一发现。在他们的实验中，参与者操纵电脑键盘进入大大小小的55个虚拟房间。

Each room contained one or two tables, with objects that the volunteers had to pick up, carry to the next room and set down on a table again.

每个虚拟房间里有一到两张桌子，桌上有一些物品，按照要求，参与者需要将物品拿到另一个房间内再放到桌子上。

As soon as they picked them up, the objects disappeared.

一旦物品被拿起，就会马上消失。

Throughout the test, they were presented with the name of an object and asked if it was the one they were currently carrying, or the one they had already put down.

在测试过程中，研究者会向他们出示物品的名称，询问是否是手上拿着的物品，或是已经放在桌上的。

The results showed memory performance dipped markedly once they had passed through a doorway, rather than when they covered the same distance but remained in the same room.

研究结果显示，一旦参与者通过一扇门后，他们的记忆力表现会明显下降。而只要他们还保持在同一个房间内，就算是同样的行走距离，他们的记忆力表现都会更好。

To confirm the findings in real life, rather than on a computer, the team set up a similar environment of rooms and tables – hiding the objects in boxes the volunteers carried.

为在真实生活中再次证实这一结果，研究团队还模拟了一个相似的环境：同样有房间和桌子，把参与者拿到的物品藏在盒子里。

Again, the researchers found participants were more likely to forget what they had in the box once they walked through a door into the next room.

研究者们再次发现，参与者们一旦经过门进入了另一个房间，就很容易忘记盒子里拿的是什么。

In a report on their findings, researchers said that moving into a new environment probably clutters the brain’s working memory, so that it cannot recall the original reason for entering a room.

在研究报告中，研究者认为进入新的环境可能会造成大脑工作记忆混乱，所以无法回想起当初进房间的原因。

The report stated that the extra information ‘overloads and adds more and more information to the working memory’.

报告同时表明额外信息会给大脑造成负担并为工作记忆增加更多的信息。