《科学美国人》双语：高效记单词的脑科学依据

原文标题：
How Certain Gestures Help You Learn New Words
Researchers used headsets that release disruptive magnetic pulses to study how motor brain areas contribute to the effect
手势是如何帮助你学习新单词的
研究人员使用能释放干扰性磁脉冲的耳机，来研究大脑运动区是如何产生这种效应的

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When learning a foreign language, most people fall back on traditional methods: reading, writing, listening and repeating.
当学习一门外语时，大多数人会回到传统的方法：读、写、听和重复。

But if you also gesture with your arms while studying, you can remember the vocabulary better, even months later.
但是如果你在学习时也用手臂做手势，甚至几个月后，你还可以更好地记住词汇。

Linking a word to brain areas responsible for movement strengthens the memory of its meaning.
将一个单词与负责运动的大脑区域联系起来，可以加强对其含义的记忆。

This is the conclusion a research team reached after using magnetic pulses to deliberately disrupt these areas in language learners.
这是一个研究小组在使用磁脉冲故意干扰语言学习者的这些区域后得出的结论。

“Our results provide neuroscientific evidence for why learning techniques that involve the body’s motor system should be used more often,” neuroscientist Brian Mathias, of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, said in a news release.
莱比锡马克斯·普朗克人类认知和脑科学研究所的神经科学家布莱恩·马西亚斯在一份新闻稿中说：“我们的研究结果提供了神经科学证据，解释了为什么学习者应该更频繁地使用涉及身体运动系统的学习技能。”

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As Mathias and his colleagues describe in the Journal of Neuroscience, they had 22 German-speaking adults learn a total of 90 invented artificial words (such as “lamube” for “camera,” and “atesi” for “thought”) over four days.
正如马西亚斯和他的同事在《神经科学杂志》上所描述的那样，他们让22名讲德语的成年人在4天内总共学习了90个新发明的人造词（如“lamube”是“照相机”，而“atesi”是“思想”）。

While the test subjects first heard the new vocabulary, they were simultaneously shown a video of a person making a gesture that matched the meaning of the word. When the word was repeated, the subjects performed the gesture themselves.
当受试者第一次听到新词汇时，他们同时观看了一段视频，视频中一个人做了一个与单词意思相符的手势。当这个词被重复时，受试者自己做这个手势。

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Five months later, they were asked to translate the vocabulary they had learned into German in a multiple-choice test.
五个月后，他们被要求在多项选择题测试中将所学词汇翻译成德语。

At the same time, they had an apparatus attached to their heads that sent weak magnetic pulses to their primary motor cortex—the brain area that controls voluntary arm movements.
同时，他们的头上安装了一个装置，可以向他们的主运动皮层（控制手臂自主运动的大脑区域）发送微弱的磁脉冲。

When these interfering signals were active, the subjects found it harder to recall the words accompanied by gestures.
当这些干扰信号被激活时，受试者发现很难回忆起伴随手势的单词。

When the apparatus sent no interfering signals (but still appeared to the subjects to be active), they found it easier to remember the words.
当仪器没有发出干扰信号时（但对于受试者来说似乎，设备仍处于活动状态），他们发现记忆单词更容易。

The researchers concluded that the motor cortex contributed to the translation of the vocabulary learned with gestures.
研究人员得出结论，运动皮层有助于通过手势来学习词汇的翻译。

This applied to concrete words, such as “camera,” as well as abstract ones, such as “thought.”
这适用于具体的词语，如“照相机”，以及抽象的词语，如“思想”。

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“There’s now quite a lot of literature showing that gestures play a role in learning. I think where this study takes it a step further is trying to understand why,” says Susan Goldin-Meadow, a psychologist at the University of Chicago who studies the effects of gestures on learning but was not involved in the new study.
芝加哥大学的心理学家苏珊·戈尔丁·梅多研究手势对学习的影响，但没有参与新的研究，他说：“现在有很多文献表明手势在学习中起了作用。我认为更进一步的研究方向是试图理解为什么。”

Research like this, as well as brain imaging, suggests the activation of the brain’s motor areas could be a factor. “It’s not necessarily the only reason why,” Goldin-Meadow adds, “but it’s probably a contributor.”
像这样的研究，以及大脑成像，表明大脑运动区域的激活可能是一个因素。戈尔丁·梅多补充道：“这不一定是唯一的原因，但它可能是一个促成因素。”

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The effect did not occur when the test subjects were only presented with matching pictures instead of gestures when learning vocabulary.
当受试者在学习词汇时只看到匹配的图片而没有手势时，这种效果不会发生。

In contrast, children—unlike adults—seem to benefit from pictures as much as gestures in the long run.
相比之下，从长远来看，与成人不同的是，儿童似乎从图片和手势两种方式中受益匪浅，且受益同样多。

In an experiment published in 2020, the Leipzig research group had young adults and eight-year-old children listen to new vocabulary for five days, sometimes paired with matching pictures or videos of gestures.
在2020年公布的一项实验中，莱比锡研究小组让年轻人和8岁儿童听新词汇5天，有时还配上相应的手势图片或视频。

After two months, the two methods were still tied. But after six months, the adults benefited more from the gestures than the pictures, while the children were helped equally by both.
两个月后，这两种方法仍然不分伯仲。但六个月后，成年人从手势中获益多于图片，而孩子们则从这图片和手势中得到了同等的帮助。

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The study indicates that the adult brain uses motor areas to remember foreign-language words.
这项研究表明，成年人的大脑利用运动区域来记忆外语单词。

But it is not only the motor component itself that promotes learning. The intrinsic meaning of the gesture also figures in, as another team led by Mathias’s colleague Manuela Macedonia observed several years ago.
但促进学习的不仅仅是运动部件本身。正如马西亚斯的同事曼努埃拉·马其顿几年前观察到的那样，这个手势的内在含义也体现在我们的脑海中。

That older study suggested that gestures particularly promote the memory of words if they represent the meaning of the word pictorially.
这项较老的研究表明，如果手势以图形的方式表示单词的意思，那么手势尤其能促进单词的记忆。

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Back in 1995, a study showed that such emblematic gestures facilitated French-language learning.
早在1995年，一项研究表明，这种象征性手势有助于法语学习。

Even transferring the words to a new context worked better: When learners accompanied the new vocabulary with gestures, they were more likely to use the words in new sentences.
即使是将单词迁移到新的语境中，效果也会更好：当学习者用手势配合新词汇时，他们更有可能在新句子中使用这些单词。

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“I think we underuse gesture in our classrooms,” Goldin-Meadow says. “People use it spontaneously, if they’re good teachers and good listeners, but we don’t necessarily bring it into the class if we don’t think about it—and it could be used more often and more effectively.”
戈尔丁·梅多说：“我认为我们在课堂上没有充分利用手势。如果人们是好老师和好听众，他们会自然而然地使用它，但如果我们没有考虑到这一点（它本可以被更频繁、更有效地使用），我们就不一定把它带到课堂上。”

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量733左右）
原文出自：2021年11月12日《Scientific American》Mind&Brain版块By Christiane Gelitz
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理：Irene
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用

【补充资料】（来源于百科）

【重点句子】（3个）

Linking a word to brain areas responsible for movement strengthens the memory of its meaning.
将一个单词与负责运动的大脑区域联系起来，可以加强对其含义的记忆。

In contrast, Children seem to benefit from pictures as much as gestures in the long run.
相比之下，从长远来看，儿童似乎从图片和手势中受益匪浅。

The study indicates that the adult brain uses motor areas to remember foreign-language words.
这项研究表明，成年人的大脑利用运动区域来记忆外语单词。

自由英语之路